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STOXX 600 index ends week 0.4% higher
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Euro zone composite PMI rises more than expected
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EssilorLuxottica rises on upbeat Q1 revenue
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SAP rises, boosts technology stocks
(Updates to close, adds comments)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
April 21 (Reuters) - European shares ended higher on
Friday as strong quarterly earnings boosted shares of SAP and
EssilorLuxottica, offsetting a slump in miners.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4%, clocking its fifth straight week of gains.
Business software maker SAP SE jumped 5.2% to its highest level in more than a year after reporting first-quarter revenue above analysts' expectations and saying it plans to use generative AI in its products.
European technology stocks rose 0.9%, while healthcare shares rose 1.7%, with both leading sectoral gains.
EssilorLuxottica SA jumped 6.3%, among top boosts to the blue-chip EURO STOXX index , after the luxury eyewear maker reported a rise in first-quarter revenue on 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," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell. Miners were the biggest laggards, falling 3.8%, tracking copper prices lower on a lacklustre 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 fell 5.8% after JPMorgan cut the stock's target price.
European stocks have gained more than 2% so far this month as fears of a banking crisis abated and investors looked ahead for the earnings season.
Economic recovery in the euro zone has unexpectedly gathered pace in April as the bloc's dominant services industry saw already buoyant demand rise, more than offsetting a deepening downturn in manufacturing, surveys showed. But central bankers, including European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos and Finnish central bank Governor Olli Rehn, maintained their hawkish stance.
Mercedes-Benz Group AG climbed 1.4% as it reported first-quarter results above market expectations.
Britain's midcap index rose 0.7%, with payment
provider Network International's shares surging 10.4%
to their highest since June 2021 after it received a bid from
Brookfield Asset Management .
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Shashwat Chauhan in
Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra; Editing by
Varun H K, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jan Harvey)
