European equities gain ground on economic optimism

(RTTNews) – European stocks rose to new highs on Tuesday, as investors digested mostly positive economic data and eagerly awaited the release of key US inflation data expected on Thursday for indices in the when the Federal Reserve could start talking about reducing its assets. purchases.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.3% to 455.03 after closing 0.2% higher on Monday. The German DAX rose 0.2%, while the French CAC 40 index and the UK FTSE 100 rose around 0.4%.
Roche Holding rose by half a percent. The Swiss diagnostics and pharmacy giant said it was CE marked for its SARS-CoV-2 antigen nasal self-test for home testing. The test provides results in as little as 15 minutes.
Drugmaker Lonza jumped 5% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy.”
Airbus shares rose 0.6% in Paris. The aircraft manufacturing giant said it delivered 50 planes in May, up 11% from the previous month.
British American Tobacco rose 1.8% in London after the company improved its revenue forecast for 2021, citing high prices and volumes for combustible tobacco.
Aviva rose 3.6% after activist investor Cevian Capital said it acquired a nearly 5% stake in the insurer.
German airline Lufthansa fell 2.3% on lower brokerage ratings.
In economic publications, German industrial production fell 1% on a monthly basis in April, reversing a revised 2.2% increase in March, according to Destatis data revealed earlier today. Economists were forecasting an increase of 0.5%.
German economic sentiment unexpectedly weakened in June, but financial market experts’ assessment of the current situation has improved markedly, according to survey data from ZEW – Leibniz Center for European Economic Research .
The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment fell to 79.8 in June from 84.4 in the previous month. The score should reach 86.0.
The assessment of the current economic situation has improved considerably, with the index rising to -9.1 from 40.1 a month ago.
Revised Eurostat data showed that the GDP of the 19 euro-sharing countries contracted by 0.3% sequentially for an annual decline of 1.3%.
This is a modest upward revision from previous estimates of -0.6% and -1.8%, respectively.
Retail sales in the UK rose notably in May due to the easing of restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic, data from the British Retail Consortium showed.
Total sales increased 10 percent year-on-year in May and like-for-like sales climbed 23.7 percent.
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