12:18 PM EST, 12/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed lower in Friday trading as The Stoxx Europe was down 0.58%, Germany's DAX dropped 0.17%, the FTSE in London lost 0.14%, France's CAC fell 0.15%, and the Swiss Market Index was off 0.18%.

Seasonally adjusted industrial production for October increased 0.3% in the European Union and remained unchanged in the euro area from September, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU. Compared with a year earlier, industrial production decreased 0.8% in the EU and 1.2% in the euro area.

In the UK, the monthly real gross domestic product fell an estimated 0.1% in October from September, which was mainly due to a decline in production output, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In France, the consumer price index was down 0.1% in November from October, and was up 1.3% from a year earlier, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, which said the slight decline was due to a seasonal drop in airfare prices.

In Spain, the annual CPI rose to 2.4% in November from 1.8% the previous month, according to the Spanish Statistical Office, which attributed the increase to rising housing and transportation prices.

And in corporate news, HSBC is evaluating retail banking operations outside its core markets in the UK and Hong Kong to determine the locations where it can cut costs, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. HSBC did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Shares of Rentokil closed 3.5% higher in London after the company reported in an SEC filing Friday that non-executive company director Brian Baldwin bought 7.5 million shares at 413.4137 pence each for a total of approximately 31 million British pounds ($39.3 million).

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is probing BlackRock's proposed acquisition of British financial data and analytics provider Preqin, the regulator said Friday.

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said Thursday that it received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency to update Ozempic's label to include risk reduction of kidney disease progression in adults with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.