FRANKFURT: European shares climbed to a record closing high on Monday, tracking a global equity rebound after last week’s selloff, as investors turned their attention to corporate earnings and dealmaking activity including upbeat results from Italy’s second-largest bank UniCredit.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.7 percent to 621.41 points.
Global stocks have been recovering from a volatile patch last week, triggered by concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting traditional software businesses even as industry leaders such as Alphabet and Amazon.com set fresh spending targets to develop the technology.
Friday’s rebound helped the STOXX 600 notch a weekly gain, although uncertainty surrounding the technology sector remains in focus.
“There is a bit of less of a concern about some of the worst AI fears, although the radius of concern around AI started growing lately,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
“So there are now concerns about who will be the losers in the AI world and it’s not just all about winners, which is what it’s been for a very long time.”
The tech sector gained 0.9 percent on Monday, with STMicroelectronics up 9.8 percent after the French company said it was expanding its engagement with Amazon Web Services on compute infrastructure.
Meanwhile, UniCredit was up 6.7 percent after it raised its profit outlook and said it would for now sit on stakes in peers bought under CEO Andrea Orcel, while easing criteria for full deals.
The EUROSTOXX banks index gained 2.2 percent, and Italy’s benchmark index rose 2 percent, among top performers in major European bourses.
In a relief for Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which has been struggling in a highly competitive weight-loss market, US-based Hims & Hers said it will stop offering its low-cost GLP-1 pill, following a warning from the US Food and Drug Administration that it would take action against the product.
The Wegovy maker’s shares jumped 5.3 percent, while peer Zealand Pharma added 2.1 percent.
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