Zara Owner Inditex Up on Profit, Sales Increase; More Stores and Online Expansion Planned for 2015

European stocks were mixed on Wednesday as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy statement and, closer to home, details of Britain’s 2015 budget on the back of the latest U.K. labor market statistics. In Madrid, Inditex SA was up after Europe’s largest retailer and owner of the Zara clothing chain posted a 5% rise in 2014 net profit and in same-store sales, driven by new store openings and expansion of its online sales platform. In London, Standard Chartered, which rallied on ratings upgrades from Barclays and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. And in Amsterdam, oil platform leasing firm SBM Offshore rallied after signing a memorandum of understanding with Brazilian authorities investigating a bribery scandal linked to state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras.

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