Europe: Shares rise as defence stocks rally, focus on US inflation data

EUROPEAN shares rose on Monday (Feb 13) as focus turned to inflation data from the United States due later in the week, while defence stocks jumped on news of India aiming to triple its defence exports.

Broad-based gains helped the pan-European Stoxx 600 end 0.9 per cent higher, with shares of Swedish defence equipment maker SAAB jumping 7.4 per cent to the top of the index.

Shares of Thales, Airbus and Rheinmetall rose between 1.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent after India said it wants to more than triple its annual defence exports to US$5 billion by 2024/25 as it looks to ramp up domestic manufacturing.

The Stoxx aerospace and defence index rose 1.9 per cent.

All eyes are now on US inflation numbers on Tuesday, which would provide more clarity on the outlook for future interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve.

European shares posted their first weekly decline in three on Friday, with hawkish rhetoric from a number of Fed and European Central Bank (ECB) officials dousing investor hopes that the central banks would soon end their aggressive rate hiking cycle.

Still, the Stoxx 600 has risen 8.7 per cent so far in 2023 on the back of better-than-expected earnings and a brighter outlook for the eurozone economy.

“Europe has just had such strong positive momentum that traders right now are willing to think in terms of the positive, not the negatives,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers.

“A lot of it is relief because so much negativity had been priced in, in terms of energy prices, in terms of inflation and Europe dodged a huge potential problem by having warm weather this winter.”

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Europe: Stocks clock second straight weekly gain

Eurozone economic growth is likely to be stronger than expected this year while inflation will be lower than in forecasts made towards the end of 2022, the European Commission said on Monday. All major bourses in Europe rose, with London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 up 0.8 per cent and hitting its record closing level. Industrial stocks were a big boost to the Stoxx 600 on Monday, rising 1.3 per cent, while gains in consumer staples firms such as Unilever and Nestle also supported the index.

Limiting the advance, Stockholm-listed Castellum slid 5.7 per cent as the company unveiled plans for a rights issue and its board did not propose a dividend.

Credit Suisse dropped 4.8 per cent after logging its biggest weekly loss since November in the previous session.

Sanofi fell 1.2 per cent after the French drugmaker announced its global head of research and development has decided to step down. REUTERS