Europe’s STOXX 600 ends at record high, lifted by healthcare, chemical stocks
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Europe’s STOXX 600 ends at record high, lifted by healthcare, chemical stocks
06 mins
STOXX 600 climbs 0.2%
Germany’s DAX falls after 11 sessions of gains
Luxury sector under spotlight after Saks bankruptcy
Healthcare and chemical stocks lead STOXX 600 gains
Jan 14 (Reuters) – European shares closed at a record high on Wednesday, buoyed by gains in chemicals and healthcare stocks, while investors also monitored the repercussions of simmering geopolitical tensions globally.
EMS Chemie (EMSN.S), opens new tab surged 8% and was among top performers on the STOXX index after UBS upgraded the Swiss chemical group to “buy” from “hold”. Chemical companies were also among top gainers on the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab.
On the earnings front, Finnish drugmaker Orion (ORNBV.HE), opens new tab climbed 12% to its highest since October, following a better-than-expected revenue forecast for 2026.
Michael Field, European equity market strategist at Morningstar, said the market was digesting some of the news around the trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc in Latin America, which capped a quarter-century of talks.
It “allows those sectors – pharma, some industrials and indeed chemicals – to export more over time without the same trade barriers or tariffs,” Field said.
Among regional markets, Germany’s DAX index (.GDAXI), opens new tab witnessed declines after logging its longest daily winning streak in more than a decade on Tuesday. The DAX closed 0.5% lower, weighed by technology stocks such as SAP (SAPG.DE), opens new tab and Infineon (IFXGn.DE), opens new tab.
Meanwhile, traders were digesting the bankruptcy of high-end department store conglomerate Saks Global, to which Gucci-owner Kering (PRTP.PA), opens new tab and the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate LVMH (LVMH.PA), opens new tab were listed as unsecured creditors.
“The situation raises concerns about consumer demand, especially at the higher end of the market, and about extreme competition in the space, including from e-commerce,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Investors were also eyeing geopolitical developments in Venezuela and Iran, with most of the impact seen in commodity prices.
Utility companies RWE (RWEG.DE), opens new tab and SSE (SSE.L), opens new tab added 2.3% and 2% respectively. They were among the project developers to win guaranteed electricity price contracts in Britain’s latest offshore wind power auction, which secured a record capacity.
British education company Pearson (PSON.L), opens new tab dropped 9.5% after its biggest division lost a contract with New Jersey.
Reporting by Niket Nishant, Avinash P and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; editing by Janane Venkatraman, Harikrishnan Nair and Mark Heinrich
Niket Nishant reports on breaking news and the quarterly earnings of Wall Street’s largest banks, card companies, financial technology upstarts and asset managers. He also covers the biggest IPOs on U.S. exchanges, and late-stage venture capital funding alongside news and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. His writing appears on the finance, business, markets and future of money sections of the website. He did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) in Bengaluru.
