PARIS / LONDON (dpa-AFX) – Europe’s most important stock exchanges made up for part of their previous weekly losses on Thursday. Support came from the USA, where the stock exchanges have recently increased noticeably. Market participants reacted with relief to the fact that the US House of Representatives has meanwhile approved the deal in the debt dispute. This means that the USA is a big step closer to averting its impending insolvency at the last minute. Now the Senate has to agree and President Joe Biden has to sign the bill into law. There is also hope with regard to the US Federal Reserve, as there are increasing signs that the Fed might initially refrain from raising interest rates again in June.
The EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50) ended the first day of June up 0.94 percent to 4257.61 points. In May, the leading index of euro zone lost more than 3 percent. In the course of the week so far alone, it had been two and a half percent until yesterday. The French CAC 40 rose 0.55 percent to 7137.43 points on Thursday. Unlike the Eurostoxx, it did not reach a new high for the year in May and even lost more than five percent on a monthly basis. The British FTSE 100 (“Footsie”) went up 0.59 percent this Thursday to 7490.27 points.
Support for the stock exchanges also came from China and from Europe itself. In China, after recent meager economic data, the purchasing managers’ index of the business magazine Caixin for the manufacturing sector surprisingly rose above the 50 threshold in May, which implies growth. In the euro zone, inflation fell more than expected in May, although inflation rates are still too high.
With the exception of household goods, all other sectors in Europe rose. In addition to the mining industry, the media industry was also particularly in demand. Apart from CTS Eventim with plus 5.4 percent, the shares of Wolters Kluwer and Pearson also increased significantly with 3.9 percent and 1.5 percent. The experts at the French investment bank Exane BNP Paribas see the Dutch information service provider Wolters Kluwer as the winner of the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), which is currently hitting the nerve of investors.
In Zurich, Credit Suisse (CS) (Credit Suisse (CS)) shares rose 3.1 percent to CHF 0.7766. UBS shares rose 2.4 percent to CHF 17.655. The shares in CS were thus traded close to the exchange ratio that was determined in connection with the upcoming takeover by UBS. UBS is offering one UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares.
The shares of the luxury company Richemont, on the other hand, fell by 1.4 percent at the bottom of the SMI. Swatch (Swatch (I)) even fell by 3.7 percent in the index. Watch exports for April were weak. The largest export market for the Swiss watch industry, the USA, recorded a decline for the first time in more than two years.
In London, National Grid only looked particularly weak. The shares of the transmission system operator for electricity and gas were traded ex dividend./ck/ngu