Europe close: Stocks edge slightly higher despite drag from Tech
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Tuesday 28 Mar 2023
(Sharecast News) - European shares put in slight gains on Tuesday.
"While the banking crisis seems to have subsided, stocks have been unable to find a reason to push higher this afternoon," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.
"The return of recession fears further dims the appeal of equities, and with tech stocks down sharply this afternoon it looks like there isn't much chance of further upside for now."
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index gave up early gains to drift down by 0.03% to 444.58 by the end of trading, but with nearly all the major regional indices higher.
Milan's FTSE Mib added 0.47% to 26,329.46 and Spain's Ibex 35 gained 0.43% to 8,944.30, but Britain's FTSE 250 slipped 0.72% to 18,396.69.
Euro/dollar was ahead by 0.35% at 1.0837 and June gold futures on COMEX by 0.77% to $1,986.60/oz..
Investors traded on optimism that the banking crisis caused by the failures at Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse had been contained.
The Stoxx 600 sector index for Technology fell 1.28% to 658.70, but that for banks was up by 0.66%.
Advanced in the latter materialised despite news that French lenders, including SocGen and BNP Paribas might be on the hook for over
€1bn in fines collectively in the wake of a French probe into tax fraud and money laundering.
In equity markets, Softcat jumped after saying it expects the outturn for the full year to be "slightly ahead" of previous estimates following outperformance in the first half.
Ocado shares dipped, despite the online grocer and technology group reporting that Ocado Retail - its 50:50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer - saw a jump in first-quarter revenues and that it remained on track to return to sales growth and profitability.
The online grocer said retail revenues rose 3.4% in the 13 weeks to 26 February, to £583.7m, with average orders per week ahead 3.6% year-on-year at 381,000.
M&S shares also gained on the news.
BA and Iberia owner IAG flew higher after an upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' at Redburn, while Bellway shares rose as the UK housebuilder unveiled a £100m share buyback despite a fall in interim profits.
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