ROME: European stocks swung lower Tuesday, with mining shares feeling the weight after another round of disappointing data from China.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.36% turned 0.2% lower to 375.14, with only the telecom, utilities and health care sectors moving higher. In telecoms, Vodafone Group PLC VOD, +4.38% shares popped up 4.2% after the mobile-network operator raised its full-year earnings forecast despite swinging to a first-half loss on infrastructure costs.
Vodafone’s gain had earlier helped lift the U.K.’s FTSE 100 UKX, -0.37% but the British blue-chips index eventually flipped into the red, losing 0.2% to 6,281.52.
The FTSE 100, as well as the Stoxx 600, were under pressure in part as mining stocks were hit on the back of a report showing consumer inflation in China slowed to a 1.3% rate in October. China is a major buyer of commodities, and slowing inflation is the latest indication that demand remains weak in the country.
In the mining group, Anglo American PLC AAL, -4.30% fell 6.3%, Glencore PLC GLEN, -1.55% lost 3.4%, and Sweden’s Boliden AB BOL, -2.03% gave up 2.6%.
The inflation data “do not bode well for the continued decline in growth and trade numbers,” said Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets, in a note. Chinese industrial production and retail sales for China due Wednesday “will take on even more importance now and as continued deterioration could drive a flight to safety once more,” he said.
Separately, Barclays downgraded its view on the mining sector to neutral. “The last 5 years have now been the worst period of performance since 1966: Looking forward it is hard to see what might pull the sector out of its tailspin,” wrote analysts in a research note.
On the indexes, Germany’s DAX DAX, -0.55% turned down 0.3% to 10,777.07. France’s CAC 40 PX1, -0.35% flipped down 0.2% to 4,901.90.
Portuguese stocks as measured by the PSI 20 Index PSI20, -2.06% fell 2%, adding to Monday’s 4.1% slide as anti-austerity parties appeared on track to form that nation’s next government.
