LONDON: European shares climbed higher on Thursday, with commodities-related shares surging after a sharp decline in the US dollar that made dollar-priced crude oil and metals cheaper for those using other currencies.
However, Credit Suisse slumped 10 percent, the biggest loss in the FTSEurofirst 300 index.
The bank posted its first full-year loss since 2008 after it booked a big impairment charge for its investment banking business under new Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam.
The dollar fell after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said financial conditions had tightened and the Fed would have take into account a weakening outlook for the global economy.
His remarks raised doubts about the pace of future US interest rate increases.
"Now we see that the US dollar has broken down quite significantly and based on the cross-asset correlation, that certainly helps commodity prices and stocks," said Gerhard Schwarz, head of equity strategy at Baader Bank in Munich.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.6 percent at 1,303.18 points by 1053 GMT after trading in a wide range of 1,290.91-1,310.59 points earlier in the session, a day after the index fell 1.6 percent.
The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources index and the oil and gas index surged 4.9 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, the biggest gains in Europe.
Shares in Anglo American, Glencore, BHP Billiton and BP rose 3.5 to 11 percent. Royal Dutch Shell Europe's largest oil company, rose 6 percent, in line with other commodities stocks, despite reporting its lowest annual income in at least 13 years.
The market was also underpinned by some positive earnings releases. Of the companies on the STOXX 600 index that have reported fourth-quarter earnings so far, 52 percent have met or exceeded expectations and 48 percent have fallen short, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
ING jumped 10.6 percent, the biggest gainer in the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index.
The Netherlands' largest bank reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and played down its oil exposure. However, sentiment remained fragile after disappointing earnings updates from some companies and European Central Bank comments saying it sees growing obstacles to growth.
Swiss bank UBS cut its year-end target for the STOXX 600 index by 8 percent to 400 points, mainly due to the prospect of a weaker economic growth.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.