European shares inched higher on Monday, with the travel and leisure sector leading gains, helping to limit the impact of weak inflation data from China that highlighted sluggish demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
DUBLIN
The Euronext Dublin closed the day up just under 1 per cent, at 8,538. Bank shares ticked higher, with AIB gaining 0.8 per cent and Bank of Ireland gaining a little over 0.7 per cent.
Ryanair was up 0.8 per cent, closing the day at €16.78, while Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment gained almost 3 per cent by the closing bell. The stock ended the day at €177.35.
Hotel group Dalata also edged higher, gaining 1.2 per cent to €4.505. Building stocks also gained a little ground, with Kingspan half a per cent higher, and CRH adding almost 0.2 per cent.
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LONDON
The UK’s FTSE 100 ended higher as gains in energy firms outpaced losses in mining stocks after weak Chinese economic data renewed concerns over slowing demand.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.2 per cent, while the more domestically focused FTSE 250 midcap index added 0.1 per cent.
Oil major Shell rose 1.0 per cent after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock.
Top metals consumer China said producer prices fell at their fastest pace in more than seven years in June, while consumer prices teetered on the edge of deflation. That saw China-exposed stocks such as insurer Prudential fall 0.4 per cent, while lenders Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings lost 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.
Debt-ridden water company Thames Water said its investors had agreed to pump £750 million into the firm, lifting rival water utility firms United Utilities Group and Severn Trent up 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
Telecoms firm BT Group fell 0.2 per cent as the company began its hunt for a new chief executive after incumbent Philip Jansen said he planned to step down.
EUROPE
The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended 0.2 per cent higher after recording its worst weekly performance in almost four months on Friday.
European travel and leisure stocks gained 1.3 per cent, attempting to rebound from falls of more than 4 per cent last week. The index was among the top decliners last week.
China-exposed miners slid 0.6 per cent as metal prices dipped.
Also pressuring the main STOXX 600 was a 1.1 per cent decline in shares of Novo Nordisk. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating the company’s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Saxenda after Iceland’s health regulator flagged three cases of patients thinking about suicide or self-harm.
Bayer rose 1.6 per cent following a report that the German drugs-to-pesticides giant could spin off and list its CropScience unit.
NEW YORK
Wall Street’s main indices rose on Monday, recovering losses from last week, as investors looked ahead to a key inflation report and commentary from a slew of Federal Reserve officials this week to gauge the central bank’s interest rate path.
At 11:38am Eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 157.52 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 33,892.40, the S&P 500 was up 4.94 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 4,403.89, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 4.62 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 13,665.34.
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Home Depot was among the top gainers on the Dow, climbing 1.5 per cent after Jefferies lifted its price target on the home improvement retailer.
Big banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup edged up in advance of reporting earnings on Friday.
Chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm added more than 1 per cent each, after US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said over the weekend that meetings with senior Chinese officials were “direct” and “productive”.
– Additional reporting: Reuters
