Europe: Stocks post their best week since November 2020

[BENGALURU] European shares rose on Friday (Mar 18) adding to the strong gains earlier this week, as investors focused on Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations and digested the talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.9 per cent higher with technology stocks leading the gains.

The benchmark index was headed for its best weekly performance since November 2020 on optimism that peace would be negotiated in the Ukraine conflict that has rattled global markets.

"It's been a weird week because although we still got everything going on in Ukraine, we've also been sort of pulled back to the normal hustle and bustle and investors do like normality," said Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on a video call on Friday about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Chinese media said Xi underlined that such conflicts are in no one's interests.

Aiding sentiment, Russia paid US$117 million in interest due on 2 sovereign dollar bonds, easing doubts about its ability to honour external debt after harsh sanctions imposed by the West.

"In European markets, we're very close to the levels we're at before the war. We're very far from pricing a negative scenario here," said Alexandre Deruaz, head of portfolio management at Unigestion.

"The impact on the growth cycle is coming from oil. We've passed the point of maximum price in the short term for oil. So everybody is recognising that inflation is going through the roof, but at some point it will have a lesser impact."

Crude prices hit as much as US$139 a barrel last week on concerns about Western sanctions on Russia, a major commodities exporter, raising concerns about soaring inflation.

They retreated from those levels and were trading around US$106 a barrel on Friday, pushing down energy stocks by 0.8 per cent.

Britain's Vodafone rose 1.3 per cent after Reuters reported that global infrastructure funds have approached the telecom giant to invest in its US$16 billion mast company Vantage Towers. The latter's stock gained 10.8 per cent.

German real estate giant Vonovia slipped 3.3 per cent even as it said it was on course for "significant growth" after a record year and the acquisition of smaller rival Deutsche Wohnen in 2021. REUTERS