European stocks close amid hawkish tone from Fed

ANKARA

European stocks closed Thursday with notable losses as the hawkish tone in the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting led to a global sell-off.

The Fed minutes released Wednesday showed that most members of the Federal Open Market Committee support moving on with tapering and raising interest rates more rapidly than markets anticipated.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, fell 6.2 points or 1.25%, to end the day at 488.16.

London's FTSE 100 lost 66.50 points, or 0.88%, to close at 7,450.

Germany's DAX 30 slipped 219.7 points, or 1.35%, to close at 16,052 while France's CAC 40 climbed 126.7 points, or 1.72%, to 7,250.

Italy's FTSE MIB 30 fell 507 points, or 1.80%, to close at 27,656, and Spain's IBEX 35 was slightly down by 0.90 points, or 0.01%, to finish at 8,789.90.