A balcony above a trading floor inside the Euronext NV stock exchange in Paris, France, on Monday, March 13, 2023.
Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON — European stocks closed slightly lower Wednesday following a choppy session, as a China-fuelled rally lost steam.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.11%, with sectors and major bourses pointing in opposite directions.
Europe’s banking index closed 0.73% lower as market participants spent the day closely monitoring UniCredit‘s swoop for Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest lender.
Milan-based UniCredit announced on Monday that it had increased its stake in Commerzbank to around 21% and submitted a request to boost that holding to up to 29.9%. It follows UniCredit’s move to take a 9% stake in Commerzbank earlier this month.
Shares of Commerzbank, which announced Wednesday that Bettina Orlopp will take over as chief executive officer in the near future, added 0.82%.
