Europe midday: Stocks inch lower as tech sell-off resumes

30th Oct 2026 11:32

(Sharecast News) - European stock markets were mostly lower on Friday as investors digested a barrage of banking-sector earnings amid another sell-off in global tech, with gains in London and Paris offset by losses elsewhere.

The Stoxx 600 was down 0.1% at 648.23, retreating from a seven-week closing high of 649.11 on Thursday.

Tech stocks were firmly out of favour in the aftermath of a disappointing reaction to Alphabet's latest results as the Google parent reignited market concerns about the current scale of AI spending. That sell-off extended to Asia overnight, with semiconductor giants in Tokyo and Seoul under intense selling pressure.

"The gigantic declines we've seen this week in shares such as Alphabet and Intel suggest that investor sentiment has been turned on its head. Current price action implies tech investors want to jump off the treadmill rather than slow it down," said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

Another jump in the price of oil also dampened risk appetite, with front-month Brent crude futures up 2.2% at $113.27 a barrel following another attack on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, investors were still reacting to Thursday's decision by the ECB to leave the deposit rate on hold at 2.5%, as expected, though it signalled a 25-basis-point hike was likely in December. The decision came just hours after the ECB said that president Christine Lagarde plans to step down in February, before the end of her term next October.

European banking stocks were in focus on Friday as investors digested a raft of quarterly results from some of the continent's biggest lenders, including Crédit Agricole, CaixaBank, Erste Group and NatWest.

Crédit Agricole fell after underwhelming with a 7.5% increase in third-quarter revenues, as the French lender highlighted strong performances in asset management and corporate and investment banking.

In Madrid, CaixaBank was flat after reporting a 12.9% increase in net profit to €4.96bn for the first nine months of 2026, supported by increased lending and customer deposits.

Austria's Erste Group was in demand after raising its full-year outlook following a 20.6% increase in nine-month net profit, helped by the consolidation of its Polish banking operations.

UK lender NatWest sank after attributable profit fell 4.4% in the third quarter to £1.5bn, while return on tangible equity slipped to 21.6% from 22.3%. Also in London, BP was higher after reporting a surge in third-quarter profit and a reduction in net debt amid rising refining margins.

Meanwhile, chipmakers were in the red, tracking the global semiconductor sector lower, including ASM International, Infineon and ASML.

In macro news, the eurozone economy grew at its fastest annual pace in more than a year during the third quarter, according to preliminary figures released by Eurostat on Friday.

Gross domestic product increased by 1.3% year-on-year in the three months to September, accelerating from 1.2% in the second quarter and exceeding consensus forecasts of 1.1%. The reading marked the strongest annual expansion since the second quarter of 2025.