European Shares Gain On Rate Pause Hopes

(RTTNews) - European stocks advanced on Thursday as bond yields retreated globally amid hopes that interest rates may have peaked.

Blockbuster earnings and bullish outlook from Nvidia also offered some support as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's upcoming Jackson Hole symposium.

The pan European STOXX 600 rose 0.4 percent to 45.03 after gaining 0.4 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX, France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were up between 0.3 percent and half a percent.

Tech shares were seeing broad-based gains after technology giant Nvidia said its sales have hit a record.

ASM International and BE Semiconductor rose around 3 percent each while ASML Holding and Aixtron both gained over 1 percent.

UBS Group shares rose nearly 2 percent. Swiss lender Credit Suisse, now part of UBS Group, said it has dropped its plan for initial public offering of real-estate fund citing low trading volumes for listed Swiss real-estate funds.

Danish allergy immunotherapy specialist Alk-Abello jumped 9 percent after Q2 operating profit nearly doubled from last year.

Norwegian Air plummeted more than 7 percent after reporting a fall in second-quarter net profit.

AstraZeneca edged up slightly in London after its prostate-cancer treatment Lynparza received approval in Japan.

Recruiter Hays was marginally higher after naming a new CEO.

Power generation company Drax Group fell over 1 percent after naming a chair designate.

Harbour Energy declined 1.4 percent after narrowing its full-year production guidance to the lower end of the range.

Hunting plunged 7.6 percent. The oil services firm said it was further restructuring its operating footprint and disposing non-core exploration and production assets in a bid to cut costs.

On a light day on the economic front, a survey showed France's manufacturing confidence deteriorated to the lowest since early 2021 on weak assessment of order books and past production.

The manufacturing sentiment index slid to 96 in August from 101 in July - according to survey results published by the statistical office INSEE. This was the lowest reading since January 2021 and also below economists' forecast of 99.