European stocks rose on Wednesday as investors benefited from positive remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as upbeat earnings from energy and chemical companies.
Powell’s remarks on Tuesday, in which he again referred to the process of “disinflation”, were interpreted as less hawkish than feared as markets still reeling from Friday’s surprisingly strong US jobs data .
Dublin
Iseq fell 0.5%, bucking the mostly positive trend of major European indices.
Smurfit Kappa fell 3.1% to €37.91 on its Dublin listing, despite higher earnings estimates and the release of a positive outlook statement, while the packaging giant also fell 3 .3% in London after saying its German and UK markets performed below expectations in 2022.
Insulation maker Kingspan, which releases preliminary results next week, fell more than 8% to €58.30, while Dalata Hotel Group fell 2% to €3.98.
But it was a better session for Ryanair, with the airline advancing 1.9% to €15.42.
London
Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index briefly hit a record high on Wednesday, boosted by gains from oil major BP.
The export-heavy FTSE 100 rose 0.3% at the close after hitting an all-time high of 7,934.30 in intraday trading, topping its previous high of 7,906.58 hit last week. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index climbed 0.6%.
BP shares rose 3.3% to a more than three-year high, extending gains after the British energy giant reported record 2022 profit on Tuesday.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca climbed 1.6% ahead of its quarterly results on Thursday.
Investors are keeping a close eye on UK gross domestic product (GDP) data due out on Friday, with the preliminary reading expected to show the UK economy contracted 0.3% last December but is likely to have avoided a technical recession in the fourth quarter. .
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 closed 0.3% higher after falling from nine-month highs hit earlier in the session after other Fed policymakers sounded more hawkish than Mr Powell.
New York Federal Reserve Chairman John Williams and Fed Governor Lisa Cook said tight monetary policy was still needed to fight inflation.
The energy sector, up 1.7%, was the main gainer in Europe, boosted by a 10.6% rise in Finnish refiner Neste and a 6.8% gain in Norwegian oil producer and of Equinor gas after the best results of the fourth quarter.
Dutch paintmaker Akzo Nobel jumped 1% after forecasting lower raw material costs, while shares of Yara rose 3.4% after the fertilizer maker beat quarterly profit forecasts .
Germany’s Linde climbed 3%, extending its gains, after the world’s largest industrial gases company forecast higher profits for 2023.
Limiting the rise in the STOXX 600, Societe Generale fell 5% after the third French bank quintupled its provisions for bad debts.
Jeweler Pandora rose 10.6% on better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, while Sweden’s Handelsbanken fell 8.6% after offering a lower-than-expected payout for shareholders.
new York
Major U.S. stock indexes fell in early trading as comments from Fed officials heightened fears that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates this year.
In a bright spot, Microsoft rose 1.5% after the tech giant announced it was revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with artificial intelligence.
Alphabet, down 7%, offset Microsoft’s gains after its highly anticipated AI chatbot Bard provided an incorrect answer in an online ad.
Activision Blizzard fell 1.6% after Britain’s antitrust regulator said Microsoft’s purchase of the Call of Duty maker raised competition concerns over cloud and console gaming.
Uber Technologies rose 0.7% on upbeat earnings expectations for the year.
Additional reports: Reuters
