PARIS/LONDON (dpa-AFX) – Europe’s stock exchanges ended trading on Monday inconsistently, but overall without any major changes to their Friday closing levels. The beginnings of relaxation on the US bond market had a supportive effect. There, the yield on trend-setting ten-year government bonds, which had temporarily climbed above five percent for the first time since 2007, recently fell slightly.
The overall mood remained tense after the price slide at the end of the week. The Gaza war and current diplomatic efforts to de-escalate remain in focus. There are also some quarterly reports due this week from major US technology companies such as Microsoft and Alphabet (Alphabet A (ex Google)) on Tuesday as well as Meta (Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)) on Wednesday and Amazon on Thursday.
The EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50) closed 0.42 percent higher at 4041.75 points after initial losses. The French CAC 40 ultimately rose by 0.50 percent to 6850.47 points. The British FTSE 100 reduced its losses, but still closed 0.37 percent weaker at 7,374.83 points. Slight losses were also recorded in Switzerland.
Geopolitical concerns continue to dampen risk appetite, wrote analyst Pierre Veyret from the trading house Activtrades, referring to the Gaza war. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, wrote that a combination of rising yields and concerns about the global growth outlook initially led to losses in the morning. “The mood stabilized somewhat in the afternoon as yields came back from their highs during the day,” he stated.
In terms of sectors, raw materials stocks were the worst performers. The Basic Resources sector fell by 1.1 percent. Here, the shares of the mining company Fresnillo in particular suffered significant losses due to the sharp decline in silver prices. The stock fell by 5.0 percent on the London Stock Exchange. The oil and gas sector lost 0.8 percent, while the top travel and leisure sector gained 1.4 percent.
Among the individual stocks, the focus was on Philips shares, which ultimately rose by 2.0 percent. The Dutch medical technology manufacturer became more optimistic again for the current year after the difficult situation in the supply chains continued to ease. However, the order intake was disappointing.
In London, AstraZeneca shares fell 3.2 percent, despite CEO Pascal Soriot calling reports of his resignation “fake news.”/ck/ngu