European markets close lower amid flurry of central bank decisions; Ocado shares fall 20%

European stock markets closed lower on Thursday, with major bourses and almost all sectors ending the trading session in negative territory.

It comes after a flurry of interest rate decisions from central banks, with the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank pausing their respective hiking cycles and the Swedish and Norwegian central banks opting to raise interest rates.

— Sam Meredith

Turkey’s central bank hiked its key interest rate to 30% on Thursday, a 500-basis point jump from 25%, as Ankara continues to battle double-digit inflation.

The Turkish lira weakened slightly to 27.06 against the dollar on the news, with the greenback up 0.3% against the local currency at 2:05 p.m. in Istanbul.

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—Natasha Turak

The Bank of England on Thursday ended a run of 14 straight interest rate hikes after new data showed inflation is now running below expectations.

The Bank had been hiking rates consistently since December 2021 in a bid to rein in inflation, taking its main policy rate from 0.1% to a 15-year high of 5.25% in August.

The British pound dropped 0.7% against the U.S. dollar shortly after the decision.

— Elliot Smith

Norway’s central bank opted to hike its policy rate to 4.25%, as forecast by analysts, up from 4% in the face of sticky inflation.

Norges Bank is also likely to increase rates again at the next meeting, the bank’s governor said.

“Whether additional tightening will be needed depends on economic developments. There will likely be one additional policy rate hike, most probably in December,” Ida Wolden Bache said in a press release.

The bank has revised its policy rate forecast since June, and now indicates the rate will be around 4.5% throughout 2024.

“There will likely be a need to maintain a tight stance for some time ahead,” Bache said. 

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Shares of Ocado fell 8% after Exane downgraded the online supermarket to “underperform” from neutral. The capital market company cited concerns over subdued growth in Ocado’s retail business after its recent rally.

JD Sports shares were up 7% after the activewear retailer said it was on track to meet annual profit forecasts. The company said demand for Air Force 1, Adidas Gazelle and Samba footwear pushed up first-half sales.

The Swiss National Bank ended its streak of five consecutive increases, keeping interest rates unchanged at its quarterly monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

The bank, which began lifting rates out of negative territory in June 2022, held its main policy rate steady at 1.75%.

“The significant tightening of monetary policy over recent quarters is countering remaining inflationary pressure,” the SNB said in a statement.

— Elliot Smith

Sweden’s central bank hiked interest rates for the eighth consecutive time on Thursday, taking the main rate to 4%, as the country continues to battle high inflation.

The quarter-point increase is in line with the expectations of analysts polled by Reuters.

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— Hannah Ward-Glenton

European markets opened lower ahead of a raft of interest rate decisions from central banks in England, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.6% at the start of trading, with all sectors in the red. Mining stocks saw the biggest drop, down 1.6%, while travel and leisure was down 1.2%.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Several stocks are set to benefit from the “relentless pursuit of eyeballs” in the Chinese internet sector, according to analysts at asset management firm AllianceBernstein.

“We’re now seeing e-commerce related activity pick up on media platforms hitherto less associated with online retail,” they said in a Sept. 15 note.

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— Amala Balakrishner

The conditions are right for buying small-cap names, according to many analysts and investors. CNBC Pro takes a look at five such stocks, including two on a “high conviction” list.

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— Weizhen Tan

Cathie Wood says a U.K.-founded company is “one of the best AI companies in the world.”

The founder and CEO of Ark Invest said Wednesday added that the “AI revolution is upon us and is going to change everything” despite fears that there will be a repeat of the dotcom bubble bust in the 1990s.

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— Weizhen Tan

European markets are expected to open in negative territory Thursday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 75 points lower at 7,660, Germany’s DAX down 166 points at 15,607, France’s CAC down 75 points at 7,255 and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 342 points at 28,938, according to data from IG.

A series of interest rate decisions will be announced on Thursday from central banks in England, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. Other data releases include preliminary consumer confidence figures for the euro zone in September.

Earnings come from Next, JD Sports and Manchester United.

— Holly Ellyatt