European shares end week at record highs on earnings boost (updated)
23/02/2024 09:56
(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
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Standard Chartered soars on $1 bln share buyback, FY
profit rise
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Georg Fischer up after withdrawing capital increase plan
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BASF flags earnings rebound but share price dips
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German economy contracts 0.3% in Q4
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STOXX 600 up 0.4%
(Updated at 1650 GMT)
By Khushi Singh and Shubham Batra
Feb 23 (Reuters) - European shares closed at a record
peak for a second day on Friday after gains in Standard
Chartered STAN.L following a strong earnings report, while
comments from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde
kept investors' mood in check.
The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX was up 0.4% to record
its fifth straight week of gains, with French .FCHI and German
shares .GDAXI also closing at record highs.
The benchmark index has advanced over 1% in the week and a
majority of those gains were contributed by a jump in technology
stocks on a blowout forecast from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia
NVDA.O .
Chemical .SX4P and automobile stocks .SXAP were the
biggest gainers for the day, rising 1.0% each.
Banks .SX7P moved up 0.8%, steered by a 4.9% jump in
Standard Chartered as the UK lender announced a $1 billion share
buyback and rewarded shareholders with dividends after an 18%
rise in 2023 profit.
"One of the things that has helped with the economy holding
up better than people have expected is that aside from the
relevant points around the commercial real estate, credit
quality hasn't deteriorated as much as people had feared," said
Richard Flax, chief investment officer of Moneyfarm.
Hurting sentiment, ECB president Lagarde said on Friday that
relatively benign fourth quarter wage growth data are
encouraging but not yet enough to give the central bank
confidence that inflation has been defeated.
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said the ECB should
resist the temptation to cut interest rates early, especially
before crucial wage data in the second quarter.
Shares of Georg Fischer GF.S topped the charts with an
8.3% surge after the Swiss industrial group withdrew its plan
for a capital increase to finance the takeover offer for
Finland's Uponor UPONOR.HE .
Volvo Cars VOLCARb.ST slid 4.9% to the bottom of STOXX 600
as it plans to distribute 62.7% of its stake worth 9.5 billion
crowns ($920.17 million) in Swedish electric vehicle
manufacturer Polestar Automotive Holding A4N1y.F to its own
shareholders.
Mercedes Benz MBGN.DE added 0.6% after brokerage Barclays
upgraded the luxury car maker to "overweight" from "equal
weight".
Bouygues BOUY.PA dropped 1.6% after unit Bouygues Telecom
said it had signed an exclusivity agreement with La Poste Group
to buy La Poste Telecom for 950 million euros ($1.03 billion).
BASF BASFn.DE forecast a rebound to core profit in 2024
and said it would slash another 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion)
in annual costs, citing weak demand and high energy costs in
Germany. The chemicals giant's shares, however, were down 0.5%.
On the data front, German economy shrank by 0.3% in the
fourth quarter, marking a full-year contraction for the
eurozone's largest economy.
(Reporting by Khushi Singh, Johann M Cherian and Shubham Batra;
Editing by Varun H K, Sohini Goswami and Gareth Jones)
((Khushi.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))