European shares advanced on Friday and logged their second consecutive weekly gains on upbeat earnings. Investor sentiment was buoyed globally by increased bets of an interest-rate cut by the Fed in September, after data showed a surprise drop in US consumer prices for June.
Dublin
The Irish index of shares was largely flat at the end of the week, with declines in banking and travel shares offset by gains in some construction stocks.
Bank of Ireland fell marginally to €10.18, while AIB was off 1 per cent by the end of the session. Ryanair, meanwhile, declined 1.2 per cent to €17.12, while hotel group Dalata saw its shares slip a quarter of a per cent to €4.11.
Insulation specialist Kingspan gained 0.6 per cent to close the week at €86.55, while home builder Glenveagh Properties added 1.6 per cent to its stock.
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London
London stocks ended the week on a positive note, as investors shrugged off slightly higher than expected US producer prices, maintaining hopes for a September rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.4 per cent, after hitting a one-week high earlier in the session. The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 closed 0.1 per cent higher at 21,202.89 after touching a more than two-year high on Thursday.
The banking sector in the UK gained 0.1 per cent. Precious metal miners fell 1.7 per cent in tandem with gold prices.
Utility stocks took a breather and fell the most on the FTSE 100, after gaining between 2.6 per cent and 10 per cent in the previous session. The utilities sector also lost 1.3 per cent.
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Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up nearly 0.9 per cent, while the euro zone blue-chip gauge advanced 1.3 per cent, both indexes hitting their highest levels in over a month on an intraday basis.
Sweden’s Addtech hit a record high and jumped 16 per cent after the technical solutions firm said the outlook for the next quarters was favourable, while Ericsson rose 4.3 per cent after the Swedish telecom gear maker beat profit and sales forecasts on demand pickup in North America.
Norwegian Air surged 7.8 per cent after reporting second-quarter core earnings above market expectations, despite slightly lower demand impacting on ticket prices.
France’s CAC 40 advanced 1.3 per cent after a volatile week of elections, where leaders of the left-wing New Popular Front are currently discussing potential candidates for prime minister.
New York
Stocks hit fresh all-time highs as the latest economic data reinforced bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates in September.
About 90 per cent of the shares in the S&P 500 rose on Friday as the index reclaimed its 5,600 mark after a slide in the previous session. Tech megacaps rebounded, though smaller firms continued to climb.
Banks got hit at the start of the US earnings season. JPMorgan Chase’s second-quarter profit increased on a boost from rising investment banking fees. However, shares of the world’s largest bank dipped 0.1 per cent after a 21.4 per cent climb this year. Wells Fargo slid 6.8 per cent as the lender missed estimates for quarterly interest income, while Citigroup fell 1.7 per cent even after it posted a surge in investment banking revenue.
The S&P 500 Financials index shed 0.5 per cent, while the banks index lost 1 per cent.
At 11:53am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 338.69 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 40,092.44; the S&P 500 was up 51.08 points, or 0.91 per cent, at 5,635.62; and the Nasdaq Composite was up 199.34 points, or 1.09 per cent, at 18,482.75. – Additional reporting Reuters, Bloomberg
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