European stock markets were lower during Wednesday morning as market sentiment was hit by weaker oil prices.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.33 percent lower with most sectors in negative territory.
Basic resources were the top losers in early deals impacted by lower-than-expected retail sales and industrial production figures on Tuesday.
The oil and gas sector followed closely, down by more than 1.3 percent on weaker oil prices. Brent was lower by 0.9 percent trading at $61.64 a barrel and WTI fell 0.95 percent to $55.18 at about 08:10 London time. This was after a report from the International Energy Agency which projected lower oil demand for this year and the next.
Looking at individual stocks, Barratt Developments dropped slightly in early trade after announcing an increase in total forward sales of 8.4 percent. The U.K. housebuilder also said that it was confident of delivering a good operating performance in the 2018 financial year.
The German rubber maker Lanxess fell nearly 5 percent after reporting a third quarter net profit lower than a year ago.
On the other hand, Airbus was among the top performers up by 3 percent after receiving a 430 airplane order from Indigo Partners.
In other corporate news, Volkswagen said that tax authorities and prosecutors raided the offices of the company’s chief financial officer, head of HR, and chairman on Tuesday. Some files and computers were seized, according to Reuters. Shares of the carmaker were lower by 0.7 percent.
In terms of data, consumer prices in France increased 1.2 percent in October on a yearly basis and 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, in line with flash numbers.
There will be unemployment figures out in the U.K. at 09:30 a.m. and trade numbers for the euro zone due at 10 a.m.
Source: CNBC
