By Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) -European stocks gained on Thursday, boosted by technology and resources shares, with the focus on policy decisions from the Federal Reserve and other major central banks, including the Bank of England (BoE), later in the day.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.5%, powered by the basic resources index following a rebound in base metal prices. [MET/L]
Shares of ArcelorMittal gained nearly 5% after the world’s second-largest steelmaker reported its third-quarter core profit above market expectations.
Euro zone banks were up 1.1% as Banco BPM, Italy’s third-largest lender, climbed nearly 10% on plans to launch a bid for full control of asset manager Anima Holding in a deal worth up to 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion). Shares of Anima jumped 9.3% following the announcement.
The tech sector recouped losses from the previous session to climb 1.5%, while autos added 1.8% after a more than 2% decline on Wednesday.
Europe’s benchmark gained as much as 1.9% in the previous session, tracking a surge on Wall Street after Donald Trump recaptured the U.S. presidency with a sweeping victory, although the index closed lower as investors assessed the likelihood of tariffs.
“We had signals that the U.S. election would be quite binary for Europe where we could have an outperformance in the case of a Harris victory, less so in the case of a Trump victory,” said Benedicte Lowe, equity derivative strategist at BNP Paribas.
“Our view has been that there’s potentially still some upside for (European) stocks, just with a lower beta versus U.S. stocks.”
Dutch fintech company Adyen dropped 7.8% after reporting third-quarter processed volume below market view, while British broadcaster ITV also lost 7.8% after posting a worse-than-expected 8% fall in revenue in a nine-month period ended Sept. 30.
Daimler Truck gained 4.7% after the truckmaker reported a marginally better-than-expected third-quarter core profit.
GERMANY FACES SNAP ELECTION
Germany’s ruling coalition collapsed as Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked his finance minister and paved the way for a snap election, triggering political chaos in Europe’s largest economy. The German benchmark index was up 1.3% after falling more than 1% in the previous session.
“There’s been a big disconnect between the German economy and the stock market … the index has changed in terms of the composition, there’s more tech and that has made it more resilient and less dependent on the domestic economy,” BNP Paribas’ Lowe said.
RATE DECISIONS ON TAP
Later in the day, the BoE is likely to cut interest rates for only the second time since 2020, while the Fed is also expected to ease its monetary policy.
Sweden’s central bank cut its key interest rate to 2.75% from 3.25%, as expected, while the Norwegian central bank held its policy interest rate unchanged at a 16-year high of 4.50%.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
