Europe close: Stocks end lower

(Sharecast News) - European stocks ended lower in the next-to-last session until month's end, albeit off their worst levels. That followed mixed earnings reports out of US tech heavyweights Alphabet and AMD, together with a similarly mixed performance put in by Asian indices overnight.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 traded lower by 1.25% to 511.51, whilst the French Cac-40 was off by 1.1% and the Italian FTSE Mib by 1.21%.

Gross domestic product growth figures for France, Germany, and Spain in the third quarter all beat economists' forecasts.

All told, economic activity across the euro area was ahead by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter over the three months to September (consensus: 0.2%).

However, economists at Oxford Economics cautioned that growth was "boosted by temporary factors" and "should not be taken as a sign of robust momentum."

Consumer price gains in Germany were reported at an annual rate of 2.4% for October (consensus: 2.1%) after a 1.8% print in September.

On the company side of things, Swiss investment bank UBS's shares gave back early gains to trade 4% lower despite posting quarterly income of $1.4bn that nearly doubled the consensus view.