European stock markets rose on Thursday while energy prices fell after US President Donald Trump said talks with Russia would begin “immediately” to end the war in Ukraine.
Germany’s Dax rose 1.1 per cent, while the Dax mid-cap index — whose manufacturing companies have been hard hit in recent years by high energy prices — rose 0.9 per cent. France’s Cac 40 gained 1 per cent.
“A solution to the Ukraine war is for sure something that could take out some of the risk premium to European equities,” said Charles de Boissezon, global head of equities at Société Générale.
“Investors were very underinvested in Europe . . . [but] the sentiment is warming up,” he said.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.4 per cent — touching a fresh high — while the euro gained 0.4 per cent at $1.042.
Construction and infrastructure stocks — companies that could help rebuild Ukraine after the war — gained. French industrial group Legrand rose 5.8 per cent, while steel producer ArcelorMittal rose 1.4 per cent.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Construction & Materials index rose 1.2 per cent.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exacerbated a global surge in inflation, as commodity and energy prices soared. It also sent western markets lower on fears of supply chain disruption.
“In a broader context the impact of lower energy prices and the reduction in uncertainty will be positive for European equities,” said Daniel Morris, chief market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.
Thursday’s gains extend a rally this year in European equities, driven by Trump’s softer stance on tariffs, prospects of lower interest rates in the bloc compared with the US and hopes of an end to the war.
In recent days, investors’ other fears — such as inflation or Trump’s tariffs — have been counterbalanced by “bigger optimism on an end to the Ukraine war”, according to Emmanuel Cau, an analyst at Barclays.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped 1.1 per cent to $74.35 a barrel while its US counterpart, West Texas Intermediate, shed 1 per cent to $70.63 a barrel.
Natural gas prices — which surged when the war began and are up about 120 per cent over the past year — fell. TTF, the European benchmark, was down 5.1 per cent at €53.05 per megawatt hour in Amsterdam.
Airlines rose, with Wizz Air up 4.9 per cent and Lufthansa up 2 per cent.
But energy companies, many of which made large profits in recent years because of high oil and gas prices, fell. Equinor, Europe’s largest gas producer, dropped 1.6 per cent, while TotalEnergies fell 0.9 per cent.
London’s FTSE 100 index, which counts oil companies BP and Shell among its largest constituents, lost 0.8 per cent.
The Russian rouble gained 3.5 per cent at 90.80 a dollar.
