European stock markets posted solid gains on Wednesday after better-than-expected Chinese growth data encouraged investors to move back into riskier assets and weak euro-zone inflation added more pressure on the European Central Bank to loosen policy.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index jumped 0.6% to 328.57.
Investors in Europe welcomed euro-zone inflation data. Consumer prices in the euro bloc rose at an annual pace of 0.5% during March, matching expectations, while the Core reading came in at 0.7% YoY, a tad lower than the 0.8% forecasted.
Germany’s DAX 30 index rose 0.7%, while France’s CAC 40 index gained 0.8%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index advanced 0.3%.
The UK data didn’t disappoint – February Unemployment ratу came out at 6.9 vs 7.2 expected, the Claimant Count change was above expectations at -30.4K vs 30.2K, and the Average Earnings Index a little bit worse at 1.7% vs 1.8% forecast.
Shares of Tesco PLC added 3.2% after the supermarket chain reported full-year trading profit ahead of analyst expectations.
Syngenta gained 1.7%. The world’s largest maker of crop chemicals said quarterly sales rose 5% to $4.68 billion, in line analysts’ estimates.
BHP Billiton Ltd. rose 1.5%. The world’s biggest mining company raised its full-year iron-ore production guidance after third-quarter output gained 23% to beat analyst expectations.
Burberry Group Plc gained 1.3%. The U.K.’s largest luxury-goods maker said second-half comparable sales increased 12%, surpassing the 10.5% increase estimated by analysts.
Credit Suisse lost 1.9%. The second-biggest Swiss bank said lower investment-bank profit led to a drop in first-quarter net income to 859 million francs ($976 million). That missed the 1.09 billion-franc average estimate in a survey.
ASML (ASML) declined 5.8%. Revenue this quarter will be about 1.6 billion euros ($2.2 billion), the company said. Analysts predict 1.7 billion euros.
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