Western European stock indices were mostly on the rise on Monday thanks to a surge in shares of oil producers, which reacted to a jump in oil prices.
The Stoxx Europe 600 composite index of the largest companies in the region rose 0.1 percent to 458.31 points by 11:25 a.m.
The British FTSE 100 stock index was up 0.7%, the German DAX – less than 0.1%, the French CAC 40 – 0.3% and the Italian FTSE MIB – 0.4%. Meanwhile, Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 0.3%.
Oil rose more than 5% in trading after 8 out of 20 OPEC+ countries announced a voluntary reduction of oil production from May until the end of the year.
On the news, securities of leading oil industry players jumped in price, including BP Plc (4.4%), TotalEnergies (4.1%) and Shell (4%).
Meanwhile, on Monday it became known that the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in the euro area processing industry in March fell to 47.3 points from 48.5 points in February, renewing the lowest in four months. Preliminary data from S&P Global, which calculates the indicator, pointed to a drop to 47.1 points.
In Germany, industrial PMI slid to 44.7 points from 46.3 points, in France to 47.3 from 47.4 points and in Italy to 51.1 from 52 points. Meanwhile, in Spain, the indicator rose to 51.3 from 50.7 points.
Shares of UBS Group AG jumped by 4.1% on rumors that the Swiss bank was preparing to lay off 20-30% of its employees amid a merger with rival Credit Suisse. According to the sources of the newspaper SonntagsZeitung, the reduction could affect 25-36 thousand employees of the total staff of the bank, which after the merger will be about 120 thousand people.
The capitalization of the cinema chain Cineworld Group plummeted by 22.5% after the company stopped selling its assets in the United States, Britain and Ireland.
The price of Italian oilfield services company Saipem jumped by 5.5%, industrial Tenaris – by 4.2%, energy company Eni – by 3.9%.
Quotes of French banks BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole grew by 1.1-1.7%.
The market value of Airbus increased by 1.3% and updated its maximum in five weeks.
