European shares at record high on earnings boost

Legrand SA

12/02/2026 08:04

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Feb 12 (Reuters) - European shares hit a record high on Thursday, with French stocks leading gains among regional benchmarks as investors welcomed positive corporate earnings from the likes of Legrand and Hermes.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX was up 0.7% at 625.86 points as of 0809 GMT, with France's CAC 40 index .FCHI up over 1.4%.

Legrand LLEGD.PA shares jumped 3.3% after the electrical and digital building infrastructure group said strong data centre demand was helping its expansion, supporting a slight increase in its medium-term profitability targets.

Hermes
HRMS.PA reported another quarter of steady revenue growth, lifted by strong sales in the U.S. and Japan, sending the shares of the luxury group 2.3% higher.

Investors globally were also relieved that U.S. data on Wednesday reflected a broadly resilient jobs market, while AI-disruption worries that had plagued equities over the past few sessions took a backseat temporarily. MKTS/GLOB

On the M&A front, money manager Schroders  shot up 30% after U.S. asset manager Nuveen  agreed to buy the UK company for 9.9 billion pounds ($13.5 billion), creating a group with combined assets under management of nearly $2.5 trillion. Financial services .SXFP jumped 1.4% and led sectors higher.

(Reporting by Avinash P and Johann M Cherian  in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

((Avinash.P@thomsonreuters.com;))