European shares snap five-day losing streak as miners gain

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shubham Batra

(Reuters) -European shares snapped a five-day losing streak to edge higher on Thursday after a jump in mining stocks, while German inflation rose less than expected in September, boosting investor sentiment.

The pan-European index rose 0.4%, while Spain’s IBEX index outperformed its peers, climbing 1.0%.

German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, rose by 4.3% on the year in September, preliminary data from the federal statistics office showed on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast harmonised annual inflation of 4.5% after a reading of 6.4% in August.

“The fight against inflation is not yet won and the tailwinds from base effects will be fading quickly. In fact, in December there will be a strong positive base effect looming due to the one-off payment of heating bills in December 2022,” said Christian Fuertjes, economist at HSBC Global Research.

The basic resources index soared 2.2%, led by a 5.0% jump in Sweden-based Billerud AB after brokerage SEB raised the stock’s rating to “buy” from “hold”.

Utilities were the top losers, sliding 1.1%.

Energy shares also boosted the STOXX 600 and were up 0.7% as crude prices jumped after a drop in stocks added to worries over tight global supplies from OPEC+ output cuts.

French energy company TotalEnergies (EPA:) hit a record high, trading 1.1% higher after finalising a sale to Petronas.

Germany’s Thyssenkrupp (ETR:) jumped 6.5% after Handelsblatt reported that the company is in talks to sell 50% of its steel division to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

Ryanair ended 0.4% higher on Thursday but fell during the day after the European airline announced a number of cuts to its winter schedule due to the Boeing (NYSE:) delivery delays. It added that its full-year traffic forecast was unaffected “as yet”.

The Italian government on Wednesday cut its growth forecasts for this year and the next and hiked its budget deficit targets.

Stocks in Italy rose 0.5% after falling earlier in the session.

AMS Osram dropped 20.1% to the bottom of the index after the Switzerland-listed sensor maker announced plans for a 2.25 billion euro ($2.36 billion) capital increase.

Betting company 888 Holdings slumped 11.6% on lowering its annual core profit expectations after a 10% decline in third-quarter revenue, partly due to tighter regulations in Britain.