European Shares Extend Gains on Earnings Optimism

By Investors Hub

European shares have extended recent gains on Tuesday as investors brushed aside trade worries and looked ahead to a strong quarterly earnings season.

While the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index has inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.4 percent.

British social care services firm Cambian has soared after receiving a takeover approach from rival CareTech Holdings Plc.

German windpower group Nordex has jumped on bagging a 595 megawatt wind turbine order in Brazil.

Petrofac has also risen in London. The oil and gas services company has received a contract valued around $200 million in total from TenneT, a Dutch-German transmission grid operator.

On the other hand, Volkswagen has dropped after a U.S. appeals court upheld its $10.03 billion settlement with car owners caught up in the company’s emissions cheating scandal.

Tesco has also moved to the downside as its U.K. chief executive, Charles Wilson, stepped down from the board following treatment for cancer.

TP ICAP shares have slumped on news the inter-dealer broker has fired Chief Executive Officer John Phizackerley amid mounting costs linked to Brexit.

On the data front, German investor confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly six years in July, as sentiment was hurt by political uncertainty, survey data from the Centre for European Economic Research showed.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany dropped 8.6 points to minus 24.7 points, which was the lowest reading since August 2012.

France’s industrial production declined for the third straight month in May, defying economists’ forecast for an increase, the statistical office Insee showed.

Industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent sequentially, slower than the 0.5 percent fall in April.

U.K economic growth increased in May, led by services, while production declined, the first ever-monthly GDP estimate from ONS revealed.

GDP grew 0.3 percent month-on-month in May after the 0.2 percent increase in April and a flat reading in March.

Another report showed that U.K. industrial production decreased for the third straight month in May, defying economists’ forecast for an increase.

Industrial production fell 0.4 percent month-over-month in May, slower than April’s revised 1.0 percent decline.