A man walks through the trading room at the stock exchange. (is associated with: «European stocks rise on oil decline, Middle East peace hopes») Andreas Arnold/dpa
European stocks closed higher on Friday as lower oil prices and bond yields amid renewed hopes about an end to the Middle East conflict and potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz helped underpin sentiment.
Brent Crude futures front-month contract fell to a low of $103.11 before recovering slightly, but still remained more than 2% down from previous close.
Washington Post has quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York that Iran has submitted a proposal to U.S. officials through mediators this week to end the Middle East war.
Despite differences over Iran, Taiwan and trade, Trump described the meeting as “great” and hailed the “truly great friendship” he has forged with his counterpart. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Xi’s visit to the U.S. as a “great visit.”
The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.35%. The UK’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX gained 0.14% and 0.58%, respectively. France’s CAC 40 ended 0.04% down, while Switzerland’s SMI closed up by 0.29%.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey closed higher.
The Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Russia ended weak, while Denmark and Finland closed flat.
In the UK market, miners and banking sector stocks posted strong gains.
Lion Finance, Computacenter, Pershing Square Holdings, Standard Chartered, Fresnillo, Glencore and Smiths Group gained 2.2%-3.3%.
Aberdeen Group, IAG, 3i Group, Next, Lloyds Banking Group, Barratt Redrow, Endeavour Mining, Barclays, Anglo-American Plc, Natwest Group, JD Sports Fashion, AstraZeneca, Polar Capital Technology Trust, The Sage Group, Spirax Group, AstraZeneca and Associated British Foods also ended notably higher.
Energy stocks Ithaca and BP lost 3.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Shell ended lower by about 0.8%.
Bunzl, British American Tobacco, GSK, Imperial Brands, Centrica, Convatec Group and BAE Systems also ended weak.
In the German market, Adidas, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank gained 2.7%-3%. Daimler Truck Holding, Siemens Healthineers, Bayer, Siemens, Deutsche Post, Volkswagen, Brenntag, Fresenius Medical Care, Allianz, SAP and Fresenius also closed with impressive gains.
HelloFresh tanked nearly 10% as the meal-kit company trimmed its outlook for the financial year 2026 after a sharper-than-planned cut in marketing spending undermined customer acquisition.
BASF ended down by about 3.6%. Scout24, BMW and Rheinmetall lost 1%-1.7%.