Western European stock markets closed lower on Wednesday amid escalating geopolitical tensions that triggered a surge in oil prices.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index of the region's largest companies fell 1.61% to 635.91 points.

Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.66%, Germany's DAX 2.23%, France's CAC 40 2.18%, Italy's FTSE MIB 1.22%, and Spain's IBEX 35 2.73%.

Brent and WTI crude contracts rose more than 7.5% on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said the truce with Iran was over. The White House chief also said he saw no point in continuing negotiations with Tehran and suggested strikes on Iran could resume in the near future.

Higher energy prices may contribute to faster inflation, increasing the likelihood of tighter monetary policy by central banks.

The top gainer among Stoxx 600 components was Spanish oil and gas company Repsol (+5.1%). Shares of other oil and petroleum product suppliers also rose, including Galp Energia by 4.2%, Eni and Neste by 3.7%, BP Plc, Var Energi and Orlen by 3.5%, Equinor by 3.1%, Shell by 2.5%, and TotalEnergies by 2.3%.

Defense companies, by contrast, saw their market capitalizations decline: Renk Group by 5.2%, Rheinmetall by 4.8%, Hensoldt by 2.8%, Babcock International by 2.5%, Saab and BAE Systems by 2.3%, Thales by 1.6%, and Leonardo by 1%.

The market value of mining companies Endeavour Mining (-7.1%), Antofagasta (-6.4%), Anglo American (-6.3%), Fresnillo (-5.6%), Rio Tinto (-4.9%) and BHP (-4.4%) fell sharply.

Carmakers also closed in the red, including Stellantis (-5.8%), Volkswagen (-4.5%), Renault (-4.1%), Mercedes-Benz (-4%), BMW AG (-3.5%) and Porsche (-2.4%).

Airlines posted losses, including Air France-KLM (-6.6%), Lufthansa (-6.5%), International Consolidated Airlines (-4.8%), Ryanair (-2.6%), and EasyJet (-1.1%).

Shares of homebuilder Vistry fell 7.1% after the company said it expects a pretax loss of £30 million ($40 million) for the first half of the year.

AstraZeneca shares slipped 0.9% on news that the pharmaceutical company will pay China's Sino Biopharmaceutical up to $1.9 billion for rights to a treatment for chronic respiratory diseases.

Commerzbank shares fell 2.3%, while UniCredit lost 2.9%. Earlier, UniCredit announced that it had increased its stake in the German bank to 47.6% following its tender offer to buy the bank's shares.