Following underwhelming results, European equities declined on Tuesday. Julius Bär, a Swiss wealth manager, led the decline. Investors were watching the print of business activity in the euro zone for clues about the future of interest rates.
By 07:15 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) had decreased 0.3%, with losses led by travel & leisure (.SXTP) and financial services businesses (.SXFP).
After the Swiss bank Julius Baer (BAER.S) reported moderate increases in assets under management and cash inflows during the first four months of the year, which it characterized as a difficult time for wealth managers, shares of Julius Baer fell 7.6%.
In the UK, BT Group (BT.L) gained 0.4% after billionaire Patrick Drahi upped his investment to 24.5% in the telecoms company while reiterating that he had no plans to complete a purchase.
Shares of the French media conglomerate Vivendi (VIV.PA) dropped 6.1% to the Main CAC 40 Index’s (.FCHI) bottom line.
Business activity in the euro zone is anticipated to have marginally slowed this month, according to S&P Global’s compilation of HCOB’s flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data.