12:21 PM EST, 11/30/2023 (MT Newswires) -- European stock markets closed higher in Thursday trading as the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.55%, the Swiss Market Index gained 0.48%, France's CAC increased 0.59%, the FTSE in London was up 0.41%, and Germany's DAX closed 0.30% higher.

Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 2.4% in November, down from 2.9% in October and 10.1% in November of 2022, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Forecasters had been expecting 2.8%, according to Econoday.

Eurostat also reported that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5% in the euro area in October, which was flat compared with September, and down from 6.6% in October 2022. In the EU, the unemployment rate was 6.0% in October, which was also unchanged from the previous month and down from 6.1% in October 2022.

In Germany, approximately 46.1 million people living in the country were employed in October, which was an increase of only 14,000, according to preliminary calculations from the Federal Statistical Office, which also said the seasonally adjusted level of employment has only increased by 10,000 people since June.

In France, the annual inflation rate is expected to decline to 3.4% in November from 4.0% in October, and 6.2% in November of 2022, according to estimates from the Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies.

In Italy, the annual inflation rate declined 0.4% on monthly basis and rose 0.8% on annual basis, according to preliminary estimates from the Italian National Institute for Statistics. Core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, fell to 3.6% from 4.2 % in October.

Istat also reported that the employment rate rose 0.1 of a percentage point to 61.8% in October.

In Switzerland, retail sales increased 1.1% in nominal terms in October compared with the same month the previous year, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

And in corporate news, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NVO) refiled a lawsuit against Brooksville Pharmaceuticals and sued another compounding pharmacy after finding impurities in their products that claimed to contain the active ingredient of Novo's weight-loss drug Wegovy, Reuters reported Thursday. Neither Novo nor the pharmacies immediately responded to MT Newswires' requests for comment.

Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial said Thursday that it has agreed to sell its 25% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings parent company FGP Topco for approximately 2.37 billion pounds ($3 billion). The company said it sold around 15% of the stake to French private equity fund Ardian, and 10% to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

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