12:10 PM EST, 12/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed sharply lower on Thursday as the Stoxx Europe fell 1.52%, Germany's DAX dropped 1.20%, the FTSE in London lost 1.14%, France's CAC 40 declined 1.22%, and the Swiss Market Index closed 1.93% lower.

In the UK, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee voted 6-3 to maintain its Bank Rate at 4.75%. The three dissenting members were looking for the Bank to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.5%.

"A gradual approach to removing monetary policy restraint remains appropriate," the Bank said in a statement. "Monetary policy will need to continue to remain restrictive for sufficiently long until the risks to inflation returning sustainably to the 2% target in the medium term have dissipated further."

In Germany, consumer sentiment rose slightly, according to the GfK Consumer Climate index, which said income expectations and the willingness to buy increased in December, while the willingness to save decreased. GfK forecasts an increase of 1.8 points to -21.3 points for January.

In France, the business climate in December "darkened further," according to the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, which reported Thursday that its business climate index declined for the third straight month to 94 from 96 in November and remained below its long term average of 100.

And in corporate news, Italy's competition regulator AGCM said Thursday that it has closed its investigation in Booking.com, which it launched in March to determine whether the company was abusing a dominant market position regarding its hotel price policy. The watchdog said it decided that commitments made by the company satisfied its competition concerns.

Telecommunications company Veon said Thursday that it has completed the move of its headquarters to Dubai from Amsterdam. The remaining functionality in the Amsterdam office will be further scaled down, the company said.

Banco Santander's Brazil unit and Banco BRG Pactual are among companies in talks to buy Julius Baer Group's Brazil unit, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Santander shares were down over 2% in Madrid.

Semiconductor stocks took a hit in Thursday trading after Micron Technology's earnings forecast for Q2 missed analyst forecasts. French semiconductor company STMicroelectronics fell more than 6% in Paris, while German semiconductor company Infineon closed more than 5% lower in Frankfurt.