On Wednesday's trading, European key stock indices rose after a prolonged decline the day before. Market participants analyzed financial reports of major European companies as well as evaluated upwardly revised macroeconomic data for the eurozone.

At the time of writing, the STOXX Europe 600 index of Europe's leading companies fell by 0.09% to 435.67 points.

Meanwhile, the British FTSE 100 advanced by 0.06%, the French CAC 40 gained 0.25% and the German DAX added 0.31%.

Top gainers and losers

Shares of British IT-company Avast Plc soared by 42% on the news that its competitor Norton won preliminary approval of the Central Bank of England to buy Avast for $8.6 billion.

Shares of Danish logistics company A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S gained 0.6%. The company recorded a sharp rise in net income in the second quarter due to a significant increase in freight costs.

The share price of French bank Societe Generale SA increased by 4% despite the fact that the bank recorded a net loss in the second quarter of 2022 as it sold its assets in Russia.

The market capitalization of German carmaker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG dropped by 5.5%. In April-June, the company decreased its net profit and warned of a deteriorating situation in the world markets.

Swedish carmaker Volvo Car's stocks rose by 0.2% despite a 21.5% drop in sales last month.

Shares of German automotive semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG added 0.9% amid an increase in its annual forecast and a report of 33% year-on-year growth in quarterly revenues.

Reasons for market optimism

According to analysts' final estimates, composite manufacturing PMI for the euro area was 49.9 points in July, up from 49.4 points announced earlier.

At the same time, the services PMI for the euro area fell to 51.2 points in July against June. Earlier, experts estimated the index at 50.6 points.

According to the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), the level of retail sales in the eurozone sank by 1.2% in June compared with May. Earlier, analysts had predicted the index to remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, composite PMI in Germany totaled 48.1 points in July against 51.3 points a month earlier, while the index dropped to 49.7 points from 52.4 points in the service sector.

France's composite PMI fell to 51.7 points from 52.5 points in June, and it declined to 53.2 points from 53.9 points in the service sector.

Italy's PMI dropped to 47.7 points from 51.3 points in June, while the index slipped to 48.4 points from 51.6 points in the service sector.

At the same time, the UK PMI indexes were also lower than the initial estimate. Thus, in July the country's composite PMI sank to 52.1 points from 53.7 points in June. Moreover, the UK PMI dropped to 52.6 points from 53.4 points in the service sector, although it had been previously predicted to be 53.3 points.