European shares post best week in nearly 5 months amid stellar Q2 earnings reports



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European shares post best week in nearly 5 months amid stellar Q2 earnings reports

On Friday, a basket of European bourses had closed out the session modestly higher, reporting their record closing highs as a swathe of European stock indices had notched their best weekly percentage gain since mid-March amid a stellar second-quarter earnings season.

In point of fact, Friday’s gains in major European bourses were almost entirely galvanized by hopes over a broad-based economic recovery, as economy sensitive stocks led the tally of gains with bank stocks surging as much as 4.4 per cent in the week.

Aside from that, the regional pan-European STOXX 600 edged higher to clock its fifth straight session of record closing highs and soared over 1.8 per cent in the week, mostly buoyed up by large gains in HSBC alongside Societe Generale following their upbeat quarterly earnings’ reports for second quarter of fiscal 2021.

Besides, an upsurge in crude oil prices over the latest quarter helped a number of oil majors post robust earnings reports, as European energy sector gained more than 3.5 per cent on the week.

Major European indices end week at record highs

Citing statistics, in the day’s European market closure, regional pan-European STOXX inched higher to wrap up the session at record closing high, while French CAC 40 added 0.53 per cent to 6,816.96, Frankfurt’s DAX rose 0.11 per cent to 15,746.45 and London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 added 0.04 per cent to 7,122.95.

Elsewhere in the Europe, Madrid’s benchmark IBEX 35 gained 0.48 per cent to 8,879.00, while Italy’s FTSE MIB soared 1.30 per cent to 26,000.28. On the week, French CAC 40 surged 3.09 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX climbed 0.40 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.29 per cent, while Madrid’s IBEX 35 jumped 2.34 per cent and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.29 per cent.

Meanwhile, referring to stronger-than-anticipated quarterly results from a flurry of powerful European enterprises that seemingly had offset concerns over an increase in pandemic cases, UBS analysts wrote in a client note, “Recent positive business survey data has underlined our view that the trend toward global reopening and recovery remains on track.

As a result, we expect cyclical parts of the market to outperform, including energy and financials”.