European shares close at record highs on strong German export data, Adidas earnings



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European shares close at record highs on strong German export data, Adidas earnings

On Friday, a basket of European shares had rounded off the session at record closing highs and marked up strong weekly percentage gains, as a flurry of positive economic data alongside upbeat earnings’ reports had rekindled hopes of an earlier-than-anticipated recoup from pandemic associated headwinds.

In point of fact, in the day’s large gains in a raft of European stock indices, which had been well in alignment with major global equity indices including the Wall Street, came forth amid expectations that a disappointing job growth data in the United States in April would reaffirm US Federal Reserve’s stance to maintain its monthly bond repurchase program while clinging on to a near-zero interest rate until solid signs of labour market recovery alongside an inflation surge above its targeted 2.0 per cent.

US Labour Department, concomitantly, said in a statement earlier in the day that US non-farm payrolls grew by only 266,000 jobs last month, well off an analysts’ expectation of nearly a million in job gains, stoking possibilities that the US labour market might require years to reach a pre-pandemic level.

Apart from the boost from a slowdown in job growth in the United States, a stronger German exports data that showed the German companies’ exports volume rose for a straight eleventh month in a row in March alongside a better-than-anticipated eurozone composite PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) of 53.8 last month added to further bullish wing on investors’ optimism.

On the earnings’ front, German sportswear firm Adidas soared 8.4 per cent after raising its full-year sales outlook for 2021 and jewellery maker Pandora rose 3.0 per cent after reporting a whopping 214 per cent sales growth in April on an annualized basis, while UK’s Meggitt climbed 8.3 per cent following local media reports of a potential takeover deal and Spanish energy firm Acciona added 2.3 per cent after the energy group had been quoted saying that it would list a stake of its energy business as early as by first half of the year.

European shares hit record closing high on earnings’ boost, strong German data

Citing statistics, in the day’s European market closure, London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 added 0.76 per cent to 7,129.71 and French CAC 40 gained 0.45 per cent to 6,386.51, while Frankfurt’s DAX jumped 1.34 per cent to an all-time closing high of 15,399.65.

Elsewhere in the Europe, the regional pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.80 per cent to hit a record closing trough of 444.57, gaining as much as 1.61 per cent in the week, while Italy’s FTSE MIB feathered 0.48 per cent to 24,612.04 and Madrid’s benchmark IBEX 35 spiked 0.86 per cent higher to 9,059.20.

On the week, London’s FTSE 100 gained 2.39 per cent, French CAC 40 added 1.43 per cent, and Frankfurt’s DAX added 1.37 per cent in weekly gains, while Milan’s FTSE MIB scored a weekly percentage gain of 1.09 and Madrid’s IBEX 35 jumped 2.6 per cent.