European shares closed higher on Friday as strong quarterly earnings boosted shares of SAP SE and EssilorLuxottica SA, offsetting a slump in miners.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.34 percent to 469.00, up 0.45 percent form a week earlier and clocking its fifth straight week of gains.
Business software maker SAP jumped 5.2 percent to its highest level in more than a year after reporting first-quarter revenue above analysts’ expectations and saying that it plans to use generative artificial intelligence in its products.
European technology stocks rose 0.9 percent, while healthcare shares rose 1.7 percent, with both leading sectoral gains.
EssilorLuxottica jumped 6.3 percent, among top boosts to the blue-chip EURO STOXX index, after the luxury eyewear maker reported a rise in first-quarter revenue due to a rebound in China-led growth.
“We’re seeing resilience with a lot of companies, but what we’re seeing is less really good news than not too much bad news,” AJ Bell head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said.
Miners were the biggest laggards, falling 3.8 percent, tracking copper prices lower on a lackluster demand outlook. The index hit a near one-month low.
News that Chile plans to nationalize its vast lithium industry, the world’s second largest producer of the metal essential in electric vehicle batteries, also hurt miners.
“The race to supply lithium is going to be an incredibly hard-fought one,” Hewson said.
Shares in Rio Tinto Group fell 5.8 percent after JPMorgan cut the stock’s target price.
Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index edged up 0.15 percent to 7,914.13, posting a weekly increase of 0.54 percent.
It closed higher for a fifth straight week, marking its longest streak of weekly gains in over a year despite economic data reflecting a stagnating economy and elevated inflation.
However, its gains on Friday were curtailed by industrial miners. Keeping the export-focused FTSE 100 afloat were sectors such as food, beverages and tobacco and pharmaceuticals.
European stocks have gained more than 2 percent so far this month as fears of a banking crisis abated and investors looked ahead for the earnings season.
Economic recovery in the eurozone has unexpectedly gathered pace this month as the bloc’s dominant services industry saw already buoyant demand rise, more than offsetting a deepening downturn in manufacturing, surveys showed.
However, central bankers, including European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos and Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn, maintained their hawkish stance.
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