EU equities tumble from six-week maximums on Chinese GDP data

On Monday, European equities dived from six-week maximums after China's fourth-quarter surge figures confirmed a deceleration in the world's number two economy with the previous year its worst year since 1990.

The STOXX 600 went down by 0.3%, which is in line with Germany's exporter-heavy DAX. Meanwhile, Britain's FTSE 100 surged by 0.1% due to firm crude stocks.

With American markets unavailable for Martin Luther King Day, the trading session was likely to remain thin enough, although company news kept traders busy.

Henkel, the German chemicals company and producer of Persil detergent as well as Schwarzkopf shampoo, turned out to be the biggest STOXX 600 diver, decreasing 5% having announced increased investments in new brands, digitalization, and marketing.

Equities in online classifieds company Scout24 ascended by 3.1% after it neglected a 4.7 billion euro takeover offer from private equity companies Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, thus paving the way for a bidding conflict.

In addition to this, Wienerberger, the world's number one brickmaker managed to head north by 0.4% after the company ramped up its dividend, telling it would meet the upper end of its 2018 earnings objective due to acquisitions as well as cost savings.

Just Eat equities went down 2.3% after the online food delivery company came up with an announcement that its CEO Peter Plumb was stepping down with immediate effect and offered a trading update.

Broker notes had some stocks moved. As a result, Air France stocks managed to inch up by up to 4% right after Davy Research updated the airline to outperform. As for Fraport, its equities went up by about 2.8% after Goldman Sachs updated it from sell to neural.

Deutsche Telekom went down by 2.5% after Berenberg had the stock cut to a "sell".

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