© Reuters. MOST EUROPEAN STOCK MARKETS FINISH HIGHER
by Patrick Vignal
PARIS (Reuters) – most european stock markets ended Friday in a net increase in one week leaded by trade tensions, with a big boost from the energy sector after the agreement reached at the Opec on increasing the production from the month of July.
In Paris, the CAC 40 has gained a 1.34% 5.387,38 points. The Footsie british took 1.67%, and the German Dax 0,54%.
This last index, with a strong focus on automobile, has been hampered by a tweet from Donald Trump threatening to introduce customs duty of 20% on all of the cars assembled in Europe and imported to the United States, one month after the opening of an investigation intended to determine if those imports threaten national security.
The Stoxx the auto sector has lost its share of 0.47 per cent.
The day marked the entry into force of the customs duties in the eu on a series of american products in response to the application by the United States of taxes on steel and aluminum. The affected products include metals, but also agricultural products such as corn and manufactured products such as bourbon and motorcycles.
The index EuroStoxx 50 was taken to 1.12%, the FTSEurofirst 300 to 1.14% and the Stoxx 600 index of 1.09%.
The CAC 40 and the Dax have not buckled their decline in weekly the most marked since march, as the MSCI world index.
AGREEMENT WITH The OPEC
The indices have increased their gains after the announcement of the agreement with Opec providing for an increase in the nominal oil production by about one million barrels per day (bpd) from July for the cartel and its allies. This increase is found to be insufficient to compensate for the expected decline in exports from Venezuela and Iran, and therefore to curb the soaring price of a barrel of crude.
In this context, the Stoxx oil and gas took on 3.07 percent, the sharpest growth sector in Europe, and the two highest increases in the CAC 40 are for TechnipFMC (PA:FTI) (+5,66%) and Total (PA:TOTF) (+3,31%).
Brent crude rose to near $ 75 per barrel and the light crude to u.s. West Texas Intermediate, WTI) at more than 68 dollars.
The day was marked also by the rise of the euro, driven by better figures than expected PMI indices “flash” services sector in the euro area, whose dynamism more than compensates for the slowdown of growth in the manufacturing sector.
“The divergent developments of the services and manufacturing PMI figures paint a picture of a euro area economy that continues to show signs of strength inner, but is facing headwinds of increasingly stronger related to the slowdown in external demand”, explains Moritz Degler, economist of Oxford Economics.
The european single currency has reduced its earnings by the end of the session (+0.28% 1,1633 dollar) after the new foray of Donald Trump on the front of the trade.
Also of note is the marked increase in shares and loans of the Greek government following the agreement reached in the night by the Finance ministers of the euro area to ease the public debt burden in order to facilitate the exit of the international aid plan.
The yield on Greek ten-year-old lost 15 basis points to 4,156%.
At the time of closing in Europe, the Dow Jones takes 0,68% but does not orientate less towards a reduction of almost 2% on the week.
(Edited by Juliette Rouillon)
