Majority of European stock markets close higher, with local data and ECB

Stock markets in Europe closed higher this Friday (13) in a session marked by industry data, by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Germany and by new directions for interest rate increases by the European Central Bank (ECB) .

In London, the FTSE 100, rose 0.64%, to 7,844.07 points, a weekly high of 1.88%, while the DAX index, in Frankfurt, followed the movement and closed at a high of 0.19%, the 15,086.52 points, up 3.26% for the week. The CAC 40, in Paris, advanced 0.69%, to 7,023.50 points (+2.37% in the week), and the FTSE MIB, in Milan, closed up 0.19%, to 25,783.48 points (up 2.40% on the week). In Madrid, the Ibex 35 index rose 0.63%, to 8,883.40 points (+2.21 weekly growth).

Finally, on the Lisbon Stock Exchange, the PSI 20 fell 0.17%, to 6,031.64 points, an increase of 2.07% in the weekly variation. Quotes are preliminary.

Euro zone industrial production rose 1% in November compared to October, according to Eurostat. The increase beyond what was expected by the market, together with data from Germany’s GDP, which would have slowed down and grew by 1.9% in 2022, according to preliminary data, are seen as good news for Capital Economics, which indicates that it would not be ” surprising” if the eurozone managed to avoid a recession.

“Overall, it’s clear that the risks are headed towards the economy performing a little better than we expected at the end of last year. We had forecast a quarterly 0.5% decline in GDP for the fourth quarter, but it is now likely to have shrunk less than that.”

Investors also kept an eye on the results on the region’s trade balance, which showed a smaller deficit in November, and on industrial production in the United Kingdom, which, despite having fallen by 0.2%, had a smaller contraction than expected by the market.

Also, new signals about interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank were on investors’ radar. This Friday, ECB board member Martins Kazaks told the Reuters that it would take a deep recession for the ECB to cut rates this year. Statements like this caused Fitch Ratings to raise its forecast for the ECB’s refinancing rate hikes.

The highlighted stocks, according to an analysis by CMC Markets, were concentrated in airlines, such as Wizz Air, which was up more than 3% and easyJet, up more than 4%, both on the London Stock Exchange. Airfrance, on the other hand, was up more than 6% in Paris, while Ryainair advanced by almost 1% on the Irish Stock Exchange. According to the analysis, the numbers still reflect the World Cup.