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FILE PHOTO: The curve of the German share index (DAX) which is displayed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. (zu dpa: \u00abEuropean markets close on a positive note\u00bb) Arne Dedert\/dpa <\/p>\n FILE PHOTO: The curve of the German share index (DAX) which is displayed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. (zu dpa: \u00abEuropean markets close on a positive note\u00bb) Arne Dedert\/dpa <\/p>\n
European markets settled higher on Thursday with investors largely keeping an eye on the US-China Summit in Beijing and closely following the developments in the United Kingdom, in addition to reacting to corporate earnings announcements.<\/p>\n
Optimism about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and strong guidance by US tech giant Cisco Systems contributed notably to the positive mood in the markets.<\/p>\n
In the UK, leadership uncertainty increased after Wes Streeting resigned as Keir Starmer’s health secretary, fuelling speculation about a possible challenge to the prime minister.<\/p>\n
The Pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.76%. The UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.46%, Germany’s DAX jumped 1.32% and France’s CAC 40 closed 0.93% up. Switzerland’s SMI finished with a gain of 0.71%.<\/p>\n
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey closed higher.<\/p>\n
Russia ended weak, while Norway and Sweden closed flat.<\/p>\n
In the UK market, Legal & General climbed 6.16%. Imperial Brands and Admiral Group gained about 4% and 3.85%, respectively. British American Tobacco moved up 3.25% and Whitbread ended 3.04% up.<\/p>\n
Marks & Spencer, Halma, Barclays, Compass Group, St. James’s Place, DCC, JD Sports Fashion, Diploma, Standard Life and Airtel Africa gained 2.4%-3%.<\/p>\n
Land Securities moved up sharply after forecasting further growth in rents after reporting full-year earnings in line with expectations. National Grid moved higher after reporting stronger than expected full-year earnings.<\/p>\n
3i Group tanked 12.8% after the company said the Middle East conflict would hurt its main investment, Action.<\/p>\n
Burberry Group ended nearly 7% down. The British fashion house reported a 2% drop in full-year reported revenue despite profitability recovering markedly.<\/p>\n
Babcock International closed nearly 4% down. Tesco, Coca-Cola, Fresnillo, IAG, Pershing Square Holdings and Rio Tinto also ended notably lower.<\/p>\n
In the German market, Infineon climbed 5.8% and SAP moved up 3.5%.<\/p>\n
Siemens gained nearly 3% after the company said that it has agreed to buy the core business of Italian rail technology group MERMEC to strengthen its rail portfolio and gain market access to Italy<\/p>\n
Volkswagen, Gea Group, Allianz and Rheinmetall gained 2%-2.7%. Adidas, Fresenius, Daimler Truck Holding, Brenntag, Commerzbank, Fresenius Medical Care, Deutsche Post, Munich RE and Beiersdorf also ended with strong gains.<\/p>\n
BMW ended lower by more than 5%. Scout24 drifted down 2.7%, while E.ON and BASF dropped by about 1.7% and 1.1%, respectively.<\/p>\n
In the French market, STMicroelectronics rallied more than 6%. Stellantis gained about 3.5% and Dassault Systemes moved up nearly 3%.<\/p>\n
LVMH, AXA, EssilorLuxottica, Bouygues, Kering, Publicis Groupe, Societe Generale, Bureau Veritas, Accor, Vinci, Air Liquide and Schneider Electric gained 1%-2%.<\/p>\n
In economic news, the UK economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter, driven by contribution from all three sectors, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.6% sequentially, following the fourth quarter’s 0.2% expansion. The rate came in line with expectations.<\/p>\n
The service sector led growth with an 0.8% expansion, while construction and industrial output grew 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.<\/p>\n
In March alone, GDP grew at a pace of 0.3% after rising 0.4% in February, while economists’ had forecast a contraction of 0.1%.<\/p>\n
In 2025, GDP advanced 1.4% compared to 1% growth in 2024.<\/p>\n
Another data from ONS showed that the visible trade deficit widened to \u00a327.2 billion ($36.5 billion) in March from \u00a322.8 billion in February. Exports grew only 0.1%, while imports surged 8.1%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE PHOTO: The curve of the German share index (DAX) which is displayed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[78,27113,27112,26242,13078,15,483,26236,100,24808],"class_list":{"0":"post-42476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-british-american-tobacco","10":"tag-cisco-systems","11":"tag-compass-group","12":"tag-corporate-earnings","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-markets","15":"tag-frankfurt-stock-exchange","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-wes-streeting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}