Strong gains in the European markets driven by corporate results

European stock markets continued to make strong gains on Thursday amid a new corporate earnings barrage as investors continued to watch developments in Ukraine in the wake of Putin’s threats of an immediate Russian response if third countries intervened in the conflict.

Moscow cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria yesterday, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any countries attempting to intervene in Ukraine will face a swift response from Russia.

At the same time, investors are turning their attention to the results of giants in the European and global economies such as Sanofi, Banco Sabadell, Barclays, Sainsbury’s, Standard Chartered and Unilever, among others.

Nearly 70 companies in Europe are announcing their results today. About 61% of companies that have announced their results so far have managed to surpass analysts’ estimates, according to estimates by Sanford C. Bernstein, reports Bloomberg.

The encouraging corporate results have boosted the market, following the upheavals caused by global growth concerns as the world’s two largest economies are expected to be tested in the coming months. Investors are worried that the upcoming US monetary tightening cycle will test the resilience of the US economy. At the same time, Codiv-19’s draconian measures to curb economic activity in China.

On the board, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index gained 1.2% to 449.48 points.

The German DAX jumped 1.8% to 14,039.78 points, the French CAC 40 also gained 1.8% to 6,559.68 points, while the British FTSE 100 strengthened 0.8% to 7,484.32 points.

In the periphery, the Italian FTSE MIB gained 1.3%, while the Spanish IBEX 35 rose 0.4%.