Upbeat economic data from US and China buoys traders

European shares logged their best day in nearly two weeks on Monday after clocking falls in the previous week, when a strong US jobs report rekindled bets of another aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

US stock indexes treaded water after last week’s blockbuster jobs data soothed some fears about an economic slowdown.

Dublin

The Iseq index closed up by 1 per cent on thin trading volumes.

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Insulation group Kingspan was up by almost 2.8 per cent to €66.28 per share, after the US Senate unexpectedly passed a Bill that could see massive investment in reforms to bring down emissions. The Bill still has to get through the US’s House of Representatives, but analysts speculated that the progress so far is evidence that companies such as Kingspan are set to benefit from greener economic policies.

Miner Mincon was up by almost 4.8 per cent to €1.10 per share, after posting 27 per cent revenue growth in the first half.

Exploration group Tullow Oil rose 3.2 per cent in Dublin to 51.6 cents per share, after crude prices surged.

London

Britain’s blue-chip index closed at a two-month high, boosted by economically sensitive sectors such as oil and gas, and banks as upbeat economic data from China and the United States. The FTSE 100 gained 0.6 per cent to mark its strongest close since June 9th, while the domestically focused midcap index rose 0.3 per cent. Oil majors Shell and BP rose about 1 per cent each as crude prices bounced following the US jobs data and Chinese exports numbers, which picked up unexpectedly.

Global miners Anglo American and Rio Tinto rose, tracking stronger metal and iron ore prices, while rate-sensitive banks also climbed.

Investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown rose 7.2 per cent extending gains a day after it beat annual profit expectations. PageGroup fell 7.2 per cent as the global recruiter noted a “slight slowing in time to hire” in July across some of its markets.

Joules Group soared 33.3 per cent after the fashion group said it was in talks over a potential equity investment of about £15 million (€17.8 million) from retailer Next.

Europe

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.8 per cent, steadying after snapping two weeks of gains on Friday.

Nearly all sectors were up, with economically sensitive sectors including financial services and autos leading gains. European oil and healthcare stocks missed out the broader rally, up 0.6 per cent and flat, respectively.

Danish brewer Carlsberg rose 1.5 per cent after lifting its profit growth outlook for 2022, saying it has been able to resume Ukraine operations and log a strong performance in Europe and Asia.

Siemens Energy fell 1.0 per cent, blaming a €200 million charge related to winding down its Russian business for a wider net loss in 2022.

Italian stocks lagged their European peers after global ratings agency Moody’s cut the country’s outlook to “negative” from “stable” on Friday.

New York

The information technology sector fell 0.9 per cent after chipmaker Nvidia dropped 7.7 per cent on saying it expects second-quarter revenue of about $6.7 billion (€6.5 billion), down 19 per cent from the prior quarter, largely hurt by weakness in its gaming business.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index declined 2.3 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was flat in choppy trading after rising as much as 1.6 per cent in early trading.

Offsetting losses on the Nasdaq, megacap Tesla rose 3.6 per cent as the electric-car maker signed contracts worth about $5 billion (€4.9 billion) to buy materials for their batteries from nickel processing companies in Indonesia, according to a CNBC report.

Signify Health jumped 13.4 per cent on a media report that CVS Health Corp was looking to buy the health technology company.

Palantir Technologies dropped 13.3 per cent after the data analytics software company lowered its annual revenue forecast as the timing of some large government contracts remained uncertain.

– (Additional reporting: Reuters)