European Stocks Closed On Firm On Earnings, Slightly Easing Geopolitical Concerns

(RTTNews) - European markets closed higher on Thursday, and several indexes climbed to fresh record or multi-month highs, as investors picked up stocks, reacting to earnings and on hopes of an end to the war in Ukraine.

Hopes of more monetary easing by central banks, and optimism about an end to the ongoing war in Ukraine contributed to markets' upmove. According to reports, U.S. President Donald Trump had telephonic conversations with presidents of Russia and Ukraine.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.09%. Germany's DAX surged 2.09% and France's CAC 40 jumped 1.52%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.49%. Switzerland's SMI gained 1.85%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Poland, Sweden and Turkiye closed with sharp to moderate gains.

The Russian market ended on an upbeat note, with its benchmark rising nearly 6%. Norway and Spain edged up marginally.

Denmark closed weak, while Iceland ended slightly down.

In the UK market, Coca-Cola HBC climbed nearly 7.5% after reporting a profit of 820.6 million euros or 2.25 euros per share in fiscal year 2024, up from 636.5 million euros or 1.73 euros per share in fiscal year 2023..

Mondi rallied 5.2%. BAE Systems, Diploma, Persimmon, Diageo, Antofagasta, Convatec Group, Taylor Wimpey, Howden Joinery, Croda International, Scottish Mortgage and Rentokil Initial closed higher by 2 to 3.4%.

British American Tobacco tumbled 8.8% despite reporting FY24 profit of GBP 3.18 billion or 136.0 pence per share compared to a loss of GBP 14.2 billion or 646.6 pence share incurred a year ago.

Unilever closed 5.6% down. The consumer goods major said that its fiscal 2024 profit before taxation declined to 8.87 billion euros from last year's 9.34 billion euros. Net profit dropped 10.8 percent to 6.37 billion euros from 7.14 billion euros last year, and earnings per share were 2.29 euros, down 10.6% from 2.56 euros a year ago.

Barclays Group ended down 4.7% despite reporting higher earnings. The lender reported that its fiscal 2024 profit before tax increased to 8.11 billion pounds from 6.56 billion pounds, last year.

Whitbread, Natwest Group, Vodafone Group, Imperial Brands, Beazley, Shell and IHG lost 1.5 to 3%.

In the German market, Siemens climbed 7.2%. The company announced that its first-quarter earnings totaled EUR3.705 billion, or EUR4.66 per share. This compares with EUR2.389 billion, or EUR2.99 per share, last year. The company's revenue for the period rose 3.4% to EUR18.353 billion from EUR17.745 billion last year.

Volkswagen rallied 6.5%, while BMW, BASF, Continental, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Deutsche Post, Rheinmetall, Brenntag, Siemens Energy, Daimler Truck Holding and Bayer gained 3 to 6%.

Commerzbank moved higher after reporting significantly higher earnings in its fourth quarter. The bank's fourth-quarter consolidated net result grew 90% to 750 million euros from last year's 395 million euros.

Zalando, Symrise, Vonovia, Allianz, Merck, Infineon, Adidas, Henkel and HeidelbergCement also ended notably higher.

ThyssenKrupp shares soared 10%. The group announced that its first-quarter net loss narrowed from the prior year, despite a drop in sales. Order intake, however, climbed, and the company confirmed fiscal 2025 earnings outlook.

For the first quarter, thyssenkrupp posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of 51 million euros, compared to prior year's loss of 314 million euros. Loss per share was 0.08 euro, compared to loss of 0.50 euro last year.

In the French market, Legrand jumped nearly 9% after the company reported strong growth in net profit for the year 2024. The company has set a 6% to 10% sales target for the current year.

Essilor gained 6.5%, lifted by strong earnings in 2024. Michelin closed higher by about 4.7% despite reporting a drop in full-year earnings.

Stellantis, Kering, Renault, Orange, ArcelorMittal, STMicroElectronics, LVMH, Schneider Electric, L'Oreal, Veolia, Thales and Hermes International gained 2 to 4.5%.

Orange gained about 3.5%. The company reported fiscal 2024 net income 2.35 billion euros, down 3.7% on a historical basis from last year.

Unibail Rodamco closed down 4.3%. Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Engie, Publicis Groupe and TotalEnergies closed notably lower.

On the economic front, data from Eurostat said Euro zone industrial output fell 1.1% in December from November. The fall was deeper than the forecast of 0.6% also reversed the 0.4% increase in November.

Year-on-year, the fall in industrial production worsened to 2% from 1.8% in November. Economists had forecast a sharper fall of 3.1%.

Data from the Office for National Statistics said U.K.'s gross domestic product grew 0.1% from the third quarter, confounding expectations for a contraction of 0.1%. This follows a nil growth in the third quarter.

The services sector expanded 0.2% and construction output grew 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Partially offsetting these gains, industrial production declined 0.8%, the data said.

On a yearly basis, the fourth quarter growth in GDP came in at 1.4% compared to 1% in the third quarter. Real annual GDP in 2024 was estimated to have increased 0.9%, following growth of 0.4% in 2023.

Further, data showed that the economy registered a monthly growth of 0.4% in December after rising 0.1% in November.

Another data from the ONS showed that the visible trade gap narrowed to GBP 17.4 billion in December from GBP 18.9 billion in the previous month.

The total trade deficit declined sharply to GBP 2.8 billion from GBP 4.4 billion in November, the data said.

Official data from the statistical office Destatis showed Germany's consumer price inflation moderated as initially estimated at the start of the year, rising 2.3% year-on-year in January, following a 2.6% increase in December 2024, which was the highest inflation rate in eleven months.

Inflation based on the harmonized index of consumer prices was unchanged at 2.8% in January, as estimated. Monthly, the HICP edged down 0.2%.

Core inflation that excludes prices of food and energy slowed to 2.9% from 3.3%. That was the lowest since October, when it was at the same level.

The price development for energy and food dampened the inflation rate in January, while the above-average price increases for services in particular continued to drive inflation, the agency said.

The CPI decreased 0.2% month-on-month following a 0.5% increase in December, as estimated.