12:00 PM EST, 11/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed mostly lower in Monday trading as The Stoxx Europe dropped 0.26%, the Swiss Market Index lost 0.59%, France's CAC fell 0.50%, Germany's DAX was down 0.47%, while the FTSE in London nudged 0.09% higher.

The HCOB Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, which gauges the health of eurozone factories compiled by S&P Global, rose to 46.0 in October from 45.0 in September, but remained below the 50.0 threshold demarcating growth from contraction. However, the overall pace of decline was the slowest since May.

"There is one bit of good news in these numbers: the recession in the manufacturing sector did not deepen further in October," Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said in a statement.

The highest readings were in Spain (54.5), Ireland (51.5) Greece (51.2), while the lowest readings were in France (44.5), Germany (43.0), and Austria (42.0).

And in corporate news, Danish pharmaceutical companies Ascendis Pharma and Novo Nordisk signed an exclusive global license deal to develop and commercialize TransCon technology-based products in metabolic diseases and a product-by-product exclusive license in cardiovascular diseases.

Verona Pharma reported a Q3 loss Monday of $0.07 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $0.02 a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Capital IQ expected a loss of $0.32 per share. Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $5.6 million. The British biopharmaceutical company did not report any revenue a year earlier.

Irish airline operator Ryanair reported fiscal Q2 net profit Monday of about 1.28 euros ($1.40) per diluted share, down from about 1.32 euros a year earlier. The company said it now expects traffic growth to be about 210 million passengers for fiscal 2026, down from the previous guidance of 215 million passengers, due to delivery delays of Boeing jets.