European stocks try to recover after ECB disappointment

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July 26 (Reuters) – European stocks rose slightly on Friday, a day after their decline, announced by the European Central Bank (ECB) in a statement less optimistic than expected, supported by a recovery of the mobile phone operator Vodafone and the Vivendi media company.

ECB President Mario Draghi pledged on Thursday to further soften his policy and even hinted at a reinterpretation of the ECB's inflation target, but this has disappointed some investors who had hoped for an immediate easing of interest rates.

The pan-European equity benchmark rose 0.1% at 0711 GMT.

The disappointment of the ECB stems from the highly accommodative ratings that the big central banks hit last month, which led to a rally in equities as investors hoped for a looser monetary policy at the next meeting. Attention is now shifting to the US Federal Reserve, which is expected to cut rates by at least a quarter of a point next week.

Vivendi's shares rose 4% after the excellent results of the first half of its Universal Music group, which helped sell the most valuable badets of the French media giant.

Vodafone jumped 7.3% on the project to transfer its mobile mast business in 10 European markets to a new company it could potentially list.

The materials sector fell the most, Anglo American losing more than 4% after the billionaire's largest shareholder in the mining company Anil Agarwal announced that he was disengaging from the nearly 20% stake in the company. he had held since 2017. (Report of Susan Mathew to Bengaluru, Gopakumar Warrier's writing)