STOXX 600 Higher on Flourishing Earnings
On Tuesday, shares in Europe closed higher, bolstered by earnings-driven gains across several market pockets, with the focus solidly on the Fed’s upcoming rate decision and the outlook for monetary policy.
The STOXX 600 pan-European index closed 0.5% higher, with the bank index for the eurozone 1.2% higher, one of the major STOXX sectors’ top gainers.
Intesa Sanpaolo rose 3.5% after the biggest bank in Italy increased its profit outlook, posted higher than expected quarterly earnings and signaled more investor rewards ahead.
The Austrian lender, Raiffeisen Bank International, rose 3.7% after it beat estimates on profit for the second quarter.
Construction and materials rose 1.3% and Spanish builder ACS was more than 4% up after it reported a rise of 8% in net profit for the first half of the year.
In the three months to June, the economy in the eurozone grew more than expected but a string of pessimistic surveys and a mixed underlying picture cloud the outlook for the rest of this year.
Data showed the economy in German in the second quarter contracted unexpectedly after avoiding a recession at the start of the year, with an increase in inflation in July, underscoring the continuing battles of the biggest economy in the eurozone.