Major European Markets Up In Positive Territory As Investors Eye Central Bank Meetings

(RTTNews) - After a cautious start, European markets are up in positive territory Monday afternoon with investors picking up stocks amid hopes of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. The Bank of England, which is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Thursday, is widely expected to hold rates steady. The Bank of Japan's policy announcement is also due this week.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was up 0.43% a little while ago. Germany's DAX was up 0.15%, and France's CAC 40 was gaining 1.1%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained a marginal 0.01%.

Despite a downward revision in France's long-term credit raating to A+ by Fitch Ratings, the French market is notably higher today, with stocks from several sectors turning in a good performance.

Kering, the biggest gainer in the CAC index, was up nearly 5% a few minutes ago. Thales and Societe Generale were up 4% and 3.6%, respectively, while STMicroElectronics gained about 3.1%.

Credit Agricole, LVMH, L'Oreal, BNP Paribas, Bouygues, Stellantis, Saint-Gobain, TotalEnergies, Accor, Vinci, Hermes International and Engie were up 1 to 2.5%.

Edenred, Dassault Systemes and Capgemini declined by 2%, 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively.

In the German market, Sartorius climbed nearly 3%. Rheinmetall, Infineon, Siemens Energy, Commerzbank, Porsche, Zalando, Continental, E.ON, Deutsche Bank, Puma and Fresenius were up 1 to 2.5%.

SAP drifted down by about 3.6%, and Symrise was down 1.2%. Qiagen, Deutsche Telekom, Bayer and Volkswagen were down with moderate losses.

In the UK market, Sainsbury (J) climbed by about 4.7%. The company has confirmed that it has ended talks to sell Argos to JD. Com, citing unfavourable terms. It is now expected that new suitors will emerge to acquire Argos.

Centrica surged 3.5%, Marks & Spencer advanced 3.2% and Beazley moved up 3%. Endeavour Mining, ICG, Rolls-Royce Holdings and DCC were also up sharply.

BT Group, AstraZeneca, Airtel Africa, Haleon, GSK, The Sage Group, Fresnillo and Diploma lost 1 to 2.7%.

In economic news, the euro area trade surplus declined in July as exports registered only a moderate growth, data from Eurostat showed.

The trade surplus fell to EUR 12.4 billion in July from EUR 18.5 billion in the previous year. Nonetheless, the surplus was above June's level of EUR 8 billion.

The annual growth in exports halved to 0.4% from 0.8% in June. At the same time, imports advanced 3.1%, after rising 6.8% a month ago.

The decline of EUR 6.1 billion in the trade surplus was mainly due to chemicals and related products, which experienced a decline in surplus to EUR 17.4 billion from EUR 23.8 billion.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the trade surplus rose to EUR 12.1 billion in July from EUR 7.9 billion in June. The improvement was primarily driven by increases in the surpluses of chemicals and related products, Eurostat said.

Germany's wholesale price inflation accelerated in August on higher food and non-ferrous ores, data from Destatis showed. The wholesale price index posted a 0.7% annual growth after rising 0.5% in July.

Month-on-month, wholesale prices were down unexpectedly by 0.6%, which was faster than the 0.1% drop seen in July and marked the second consecutive fall. Prices were forecast to rise 0.2%.

UK house prices dropped in September after several months of muted growth as competitive pricing became more vital in the south, the property website Rightmove said Monday.

Average asking prices edged down 0.1% from the previous year in September. The fall was driven by London and the south, as the south underperformed the rest of region.

The number of homes coming for sale in the south increased 9% on 2024, compared with 2% elsewhere. It took an average of five days longer to find a buyer.

Nonetheless, overall the number of sales being agreed was 4% ahead of this time last year.