Stocks rose across Europe, with the Paris stock index rising as much as 2.8 percent after the far-right Rally National party took a big lead in the first round of parliamentary elections.
European stocks rose on Monday, with the Paris stock index rising as much as 2.8 percent after the far-right Rally National party took a big lead in the first round of parliamentary elections.
Other European markets opened higher and most Asian markets also rose.
The euro strengthened, rising to $1.0771 from $1.0744, after pollsters suggested the National Coalition could win a majority in the lower house of parliament, but the outcome is uncertain and the voting system is complicated.
The CAC 40 in Paris was lower, trading 1.6 percent higher at 7,594.08, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.5 percent to 18,320.36. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.5 percent to 8,203.40.
In a commentary, economists at ING Economics said the euro’s rise was likely due to relief that far-right parties received less votes than expected.
“Still, the results of the first round of voting do not provide much certainty about the composition of parliament, and the second round of voting scheduled for next weekend is in fact a high-stakes event,” they said.
In Asian markets, Japan’s stock index, the Nikkei average, rose 0.1 percent to 39,631.06 after the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey showed business sentiment among the country’s major manufacturers improved slightly in the April-June period.
However, the government revised down its growth forecast for the first quarter of this year from minus 1.8% to an annualized minus 2.9%.
“Across all industries and company sizes, business sentiment is stable at 12, which is in line with historical trends and quarterly GDP growth of around 0%,” Marcel Thierryand of Capital Economics said in his assessment of the Tankan. “A new slowdown in GDP growth this quarter would be consistent with the decline in industrial production that companies were expecting in June.”
The dollar surged further against the Japanese yen, trading at 161.04 yen early Monday, from Friday’s close of 160.80 yen.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9 percent to 2,994.73 after a factory purchasing managers’ survey released over the weekend showed conditions had contracted for a second straight month.
But a similar survey of private manufacturing activity released on Monday showed the economy was picking up. The Caixin manufacturing PMI rose to 51.8 in June on a 100-point scale, up from 51.7 in June. A reading above 50 is considered an expansion.
The Hong Kong market was closed for a public holiday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% to 7,750.70. South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.2% to 2,804.31 after a private survey showed South Korean manufacturing activity rose to its highest level since April 2022.
A late sell-off on Friday saw the S&P 500 fall 0.4%, marking its loss for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%.
Despite the weak close, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain near all-time highs.
The S&P 500 rose 3.5% in June and is up about 14.5% so far this year, while the Nasdaq is up about 6% this month and is up 18.1% so far this year.
Inflation continues to moderate, the report said. Investors are hoping that the calm will prompt the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates, which are at their highest in more than two decades.
Consumer prices rose 2.6% year-on-year in May, according to the latest personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, signaling a continued easing from April’s 2.7% increase and well below the 7.1% peak two years ago.
The Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates at their highest levels in more than two decades to keep inflation at its 2% target, and other inflation measures, such as the well-known Consumer Price Index, also suggest price pressures are easing.
In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 45 cents to $81.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the international standard Brent crude added 43 cents to $85.43 a barrel.
