PARIS: European stocks closed less than 1 percent away from record high levels on Thursday after the European Central Bank delivered a widely expected 25-basis-point rate cut, even though it refrained from offering new clues about its next move.
The continent-wide STOXX 600 index ended higher by 0.8%, following a two-day decline. Bourses in most major markets including France and Italy trended higher, and Germany’s DAX closed at an all-time high.
The ECB reduced its interest rates by 25 bps, following a similar-sized cut in September, which marked its first back-to-back rate cuts in 13 years.
However, the central bank did not provide any indication about future moves in its statement and instead repeated its mantra that decisions will be data-dependent.
This came in the face of money markets’ expectations of three further reductions through March 2025. Inflation in the euro zone is now increasingly under control and the economic outlook has worsened.
“Another cut is likely in December, and we expect this will be followed by a series of cuts at every meeting through to June next year,” said Dean Turner, chief eurozone economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“Small and mid-caps in the euro zone offer attractive value and should be one of the main beneficiaries of ECB rate cuts.” Defence stocks led sectoral gains with a 2.6% jump, while cyclicals such as financial services, banks and industrial goods were among top performers.
The small caps and mid cap indexes rose about 0.4% each to touch their respective two-week highs.
Investor sentiment was already upbeat on the back of a slew of robust corporate earnings ahead of the monetary policy verdict.
Finnish bank Nordea rose 6.3%, supporting a more than 1% rise in the bank index, after raising its forecast and announcing a new share buyback programme.
French-listed Sartorius rose 17.7%, topping the STOXX 600, after the pharmaceutical equipment supplier’s better-than-expected bio-processing order intake boosted its nine-month results.
British pest control company Rentokil Initial rose 8.7% on plans to expand initiatives to increase organic growth in North America following higher group revenue growth.
On the flip side, Mondi dropped 7.4% after the British packaging company reported a lower third-quarter core profit.
Nokia fell 2.5% after its quarterly sales missed estimates. A Reuters report said it has laid off about a fifth of its employee base across Greater China and plans to cut another 350 jobs across Europe as part of efforts to lower costs.
Nestle reversed early losses and closed up 2.5%, with analysts pointing to supportive comments from the consumer giant’s management. It had initially trimmed its full-year sales forecast.
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