- Electrolux slips on weak consumer sentiment forecast
- Danske Bank rises on share buyback program
- Mercedes-Benz up after prelim FCF beat
Feb 2 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Friday as traders assessed a flurry of upbeat corporate updates from the region and as the index mirrored overnight gains on Wall Street after softer economic data and upbeat tech results.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.6%, as of 0926 GMT and hovered near two-year highs scaled earlier in the week.
Danske Bank jumped 5.8% after the Danish lender reported fourth-quarter results and announced a share buyback program, while Vallourec climbed to the top of the benchmark index, up 7.6% after the French steel tubes maker said it expects 2023 results to exceed its prior outlook.
Danske's gains led financials up 1%.
Mercedes-Benz shares advanced 2.9% after the German automaker reported its preliminary annual free cash flow (FCF) of the industrial business above market expectations.
The stock was among top performers on the German DAX 40 index, which rose 0.8%.
Riding the wave, technology stocks added 0.9%, tracking overnight gains in Meta Platforms and Amazon.com on posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
Aiding the global sentiment, data showed U.S. worker productivity grew faster than expected in the fourth quarter on Thursday, helping the Federal Reserve in its fight against inflation and potentially setting the tone for global central bankers.
Markets will now await the U.S. jobs report, due later in the day.
A raft of positive earnings updates, both in Europe and the United States nudged the benchmark index on course for its second week of gains, though the latest LSEG data still estimates STOXX 600 companies' earnings to decrease 8.5% year-on-year.
However, policymakers pushing back the timing of rate cuts tempered some sentiment, with money markets pricing in a cut of around 135 basis points (bps) by the European Central Bank this year, down from around 150 bps earlier this week. 0#ECBWATCH
"We still think that the market is pricing in too much from the central banks ... we remain of the view that it's time to take a breather in the risky assets rally," said Mohit Kumar, chief economist Europe at Jefferies, in a note.
"The right question, in our view, is how aggressive the central banks will be in their rate-cutting cycle. And there we would argue that the market has gone a bit ahead of itself."
Among the laggards, Electrolux shares fell 3.5% as the Swedish appliances maker said it expects consumer sentiment to stay weak in early 2024.
Oil and gas slid 0.9%, dragged by a 1.9% fall in UK's BP after the oil giant shut its biggest hydrocarbon refinery in the Midwest U.S. region.
Reporting by Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sohini Goswami
Source: Reuters