Business

European stocks rise while oil prices slip after recent highs

London’s FTSE 100 recovered some but not all of its losses from Friday

Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street’s main stock indices advanced in choppy trading on Monday after US treasury yields retreated from session highs. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Eoin Burke-Kennedy
Mon Apr 8 2024 - 18:10

European investors were in good spirits on Monday, with top stock indices climbing higher and oil prices slipping as Israel withdrew troops from southern Gaza. London’s FTSE 100 recovered some but not all of its losses on Friday following a stronger session for miners and travel giants.

EasyJet was among the day’s biggest risers after recently rejoining the UK’s top stock index and seeing its rating upgraded by analysts at banking giant UBS. It promoted a similar jump in the share price of British Airways and Iberia owner IAG Group.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s Dax moved 0.77 per cent higher and France’s Cac was up 0.72 per cent. Over in the US both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were flat by the time European markets closed.

The price of Brent crude oil fell 1.6 per cent to $89.70 per barrel after climbing to more than five-month highs last week.

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DUBLIN

Ryanair was one of the biggest movers on Dublin’s Iseq, trading up 3.8 per cent at €21.62 as oil prices eased back and rival low-cost carrier EasyJet got a ratings upgrade. The airline said recently its summer booking activity has been robust.

AIB traded broadly flat after the lender moved to take a greater slice of green mortgages activity by cutting rates on its fixed-rate products by 0.2 of a percentage point to a market-leading low. Rival Permanent TSB closed the session up 2.2 per cent. Like AIB, Permanent TSB is planning to offer to buy out thousands of legacy shareholders with tiny holdings after their stakes were severely diluted by the bank’s crisis-era bailout. Elsewhere hotel group Dalata finished up 1.75 per cent at €4.36.

LONDON

The main UK share indexes rose on Monday, supported by miners as Shanghai copper prices touched record highs, while betting group Entain rallied on speculation of a potential takeover.

The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 closed 0.4 per cent higher following a sluggish start to the session, while the midcap FTSE 250 index added 0.7 per cent.

Shares of mining giants Rio Tinto, Glencore and Anglo American rose in the range of 1.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent as copper prices climbed to new peaks, catching up with a rally in other commodities on strong manufacturing data from top metals consumer China.

Investors looked ahead to US inflation and UK GDP figures later this week for clues on the path of monetary policy.

UK equities logged weekly losses on Friday after stronger-than-expected US economic data prompted investors to scale back bets of several interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve this year.

Among other stocks, Entain rose 5.2 per cent after a Sunday Times report said private equity firms including Apollo were circling the betting and gaming group. EasyJet gained 3.3 per cent after UBS raised its price target on the airline’s stock

EUROPE

In company news shares in Cake Box moved higher after the cream cake retailer upgraded its profit outlook for the year thanks to stronger sales. It also said it had benefited from the cost of raw materials starting to come down, and from previous investment making the business more efficient. Its share price closed 2.5 per cent higher.

CVS’s share price remained steady despite the vet group revealing it had suffered significant disruption from a cyber incident over the past week. The company said it had managed to limit the impact of the attack but that hackers had managed to access a limited number of its IT systems, so it was now ramping up cyber security. Shares in CVS dipped by 0.2 per cent.

NEW YORK

Wall Street’s main stock indexes advanced in choppy trading on Monday after US treasury yields retreated from session highs, while investors awaited data and commentary from the Federal Reserve’s policymakers to gauge its rate outlook.

US stocks recorded weekly losses on Friday as traders scaled back expectations on the timing of rate cuts. They now see an around 51 per cent chance of the Fed announcing its first rate cut in June, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, down from about 58 per cent at the beginning of last week.

Hawkish commentary from central bank officials last week and stronger-than-expected manufacturing and jobs reports pointed to a resilient US economy, easing the pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates quickly.

First-quarter earnings season picks up pace now, with banking giants JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo scheduled to report later in the week.

Leading gains across megacap growth stocks Tesla rose 5.2 per cent after Elon chief executive Musk said the company would unveil the Robotaxi on August 8th. – Additional reporting by Reuters

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy is Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times

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