Staff of Reuters 3 minutes Reuters (Reuters) – On Friday, European equities rose more than 1%, scoring their strongest performance in two months and wiping out all of this week’s losses, as investors sought bargains after one of the worst sell-offs this year due to concerns about global economic growth. On July 9, 2021, a stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, displays a graph of the German share price index DAX. REUTERS/Staff The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.3 percent, with automakers and miners, which had been battered earlier this week, gaining 4 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. The mining industry had its best day in two months. Stocks in France soared the most in four months, gaining 2.1 percent and driving gains on major European exchanges. Banks were up 2.4 percent this week, although they were the hardest hurt by falling government bond yields. [GVD/EUR] Concerns about the strength of the recovery were heightened by a new increase in COVID-19 cases and poor U.S. and Chinese economic statistics, which boosted bonds and sent the benchmark STOXX 600 1.1 percent lower on the week until Friday’s gains offset those losses. However, with France predicting that the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 will account for the majority of new coronavirus cases in the country starting this weekend, and Spain’s tourist hotspots requesting that curfews be reinstated, the path out of a pandemic-induced economic slump remains difficult. “This kind of anguish is nothing new in the world of finance. The decline in yields, on the other hand, indicates that the rebound is either in jeopardy or at least being postponed “Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said in a note. “A lot will likely hinge on vaccination distribution plans and the speed with which they can be implemented in nations where instances are rapidly increasing.” As Britain intended to eliminate quarantine for fully-vaccinated arrivals from other nations in the coming weeks, UK airlines such as British Airways-owner IAG, easyJet, and Ryanair climbed between 0.5 percent and 1.9 percent. Despite the loosening of COVID-related limitations, the UK’s post-lockdown economic recovery slowed dramatically in May, according to previously available data. Airbus increased by 3.4 percent after reporting a 52 percent increase in deliveries in the first half of the year. Burberry jumped 3.8 percent when Goldman Sachs raised the company to “buy,” but Italian rival Salvatore Ferragamo fell 0.7 percent after the American bank downgraded it to “sell.” Investors’ attention will now shift to earnings season, which begins in earnest next week. According to Refinitiv IBES data, the majority of European companies are likely to report later this month, with analysts anticipating a near-109 percent increase in second-quarter profit for STOXX 600 companies. Stocks in Europe, graphic Sruthi Shankar and Susan Mathew in Bengaluru contributed reporting, and Uttaresh.V and Aditya Soni edited the piece./n
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