Europe midday: Stocks higher despite Beijing's decision to stop some agricultural purchases
Masmovil Ibercom, S.A.
€20.00
18:15 13/12/18
Stocks in Europe are holding higher despite Beijing's decision to halt purchases of some US agricultural imports pending the details of Washington's response to China's decision to move forward with a security bill for Hong Kong that observers say are in breach of its treaty obligations.
Last Friday, the White House announced that it would review the privileges enjoyed by HK and that it might push for sanctions against Chinese officials "directly or indirectly involved" in eroding the City's freedoms.
However, the US President did not put the recent US-China trade deal on the table and, at least in Europe, markets appeared to be shrugging off the news out of China.
"Trump’s decision to maintain the US-China trade deal has helped boost risk assets today, with the travel sector benefiting in particular," said IG's Chris Beauchamp in a note sent to clients ahead of the latest news on China's agricultural purchases.
Against that backdrop, as of 1430 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was trading higher by 0.61% at 352.5, alongside a 1.04% jump for the FTSE Mibtel to 18,379.34, while the Cac-40 was adding 0.97% to 4,741.17.
Spanish telecoms tower owner MasMovil was the standout gainer after US private equity outfits Cinven and Providence agreed on a €2.96bn takeover.
There was little fresh economic data for investors to sink their teeth into at the start of the week.
That said, the main report of the session was IHS Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index for May, which was confirmed at 39.4 for May, versus a preliminary reading of 39.5 and an April print of 33.4.