LONDON (Reuters) – European shares rose to a record high on Thursday, lifted by a rally in global stocks that also saw Japan’s blue-chip Nikkei index hit an all-time high.
Europe’s broad STOXX 600 index rose to 495.81 points, surpassing the 495.46 reached in Jan. 2022, as unexpectedly strong revenue forecasts from U.S. chip giant Nvidia lifted sentiment around the world.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose to a record high earlier on Thursday.
TREVOR GREETHAM, HEAD OF MULTI-ASSET, ROYAL LONDON, LONDON:
“This is not about the ECB or the strength of the euro zone consumer. Stock markets are very global and many of the companies listed in Europe are global companies.”
“What’s happening is we are seeing some quite positive green shoots of (global) growth picking up. A lot of people including myself thought we would be in a recession by now, and while things still aren’t great outside of the U.S. it looks like (global) business confidence is starting to rise, new orders are picking up, we are expecting global growth to get a bit stronger and Europe is catching some of that sentiment.”
NATHAN SWEENEY, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF MULTI-ASSET, MARLBOROUGH, LONDON:
“Europe is trading on cheap valuations, and we are expecting continued revenue growth from the GRANOLAS—a moniker to reflect the 11 largest companies by market cap, which includes GSK, Roche, ASML, Nestle, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, L’Oreal, LVMH, AstraZeneca, SAP and Sanofi.”
“Inflation doesn’t need to be 2% for rate cuts to come through, so we expect rate cuts this summer, which will boost corporate earnings.”
“Additionally, China is now turning a corner, which will lift exports from Europe.”
FIONA CINCOTTA, SENIOR FINANCIAL MARKET ANALYST, CITY INDEX, LONDON:
“(Today’s gains) are obviously a result of the AI optimism which stemmed from the Nvidia results, they were probably the most keenly awaited results of all time and they really didn’t disappoint.”
“That fueled expectations around this AI rally that we’ve been seeing across the end of 2023 and start of 2024. Not only have we got this optimism around AI, there are expectations that the ECB and Fed at some point will start cutting interest rates and that does support the upbeat mood.”
“U.S. futures are surging higher, we saw the Nikkei trading at all time highs, this is part of a global story, it’s not European centric.”
(Reporting by the Markets Team; Compiled by Dhara Ranasinghe)
