By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets rose for a
sixth-straight day on Wednesday, boosted by solid Chinese export
data and well-received corporate results.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.8% to end at 332, marking the
highest close in almost three weeks.
Among notable movers in Europe, shares of Société Générale SA
gained 4.7% after the French bank said it swung to a profit in the
fourth quarter. It also said it has repaid money it borrowed from
the European Central Bank two years ago through the ECB's long-term
refinancing operations (LTRO).
Shares of ING Group NV climbed 3.6% after the Dutch financial
firm said underlying pretax profit at its banking business more
than tripled in the fourth quarter.
Shares of Heineken NV (HINKY) rose 0.4% after the Dutch brewer
said it expects improved performance in 2014 as the global economy
recovers.
On a more downbeat note, shares of Telenor ASA slid 6.9% after
the Norwegian telecom firm reported earnings below market
expectations.
Another Norwegian firm, Yara International ASA dropped 6.8%
after the fertilizer producer reported a sharp fall in
fourth-quarter profit.
The broader markets were boosted by better-than-expected data
from China. Trade numbers for January showed exports rose 10.6%
compared with a year earlier, far exceeding economists'
expectations. Markets tend to celebrate a rise in Chinese exports,
because it signals a pickup in global demand. Asia markets closed
higher.
On the numbers front, data showed euro-zone industrial
production dropped 0.7% in December, slipping more than forecast.
Shaking off the negative data, Germany's DAX 30 index gained 0.7%
to 9,540.00, and France's CAC 40 index climbed 0.5% to
4,305.50.
U.K. stocks underperformed most of the major European indexes
after the Bank of England updated its forward guidance. The central
bank said it will now monitor a range of indicators such as wages,
working hours, labor productivity and unemployment, rather than
mainly pegging its monetary policy to an improvement in the
joblessness level, as it had done since August. Read: Forward
Guidance 2.0: Is Carney just digging with a larger shovel?
At that time, the BOE introduced its first forward-guidance
framework and said interest rates would stay at a record low until
the unemployment rate at least dropped to 7%. At the press
conference for the bank's quarterly inflation report on Wednesday,
Governor Mark Carney said the joblessness level is likely to reach
the 7% threshold by spring this year, but indicated that rates will
stay low until the second quarter of 2015.
Several analysts, however, argued that a rate hike could come as
soon as August.
"Without an overtly dovish asymmetry in the BOE's reaction
function, and things like threshold changes and time-contingent
guidance essentially ruled out, there is hawkish news for the
market to digest," Nomura analysts said in a note.
The BOE also lifted its 2014 growth forecast for the U.K. to
3.4%, from a previous estimate of 2.8%.
The pound (GBPUSD) rose after the guidance overhaul, trading at
$1.6580, up from $1.6450 late Tuesday.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index closed slightly higher at 6,675.03,
down from an intraday high of 6,708.17.
Tullow Oil PLC slumped 6.3% in London after the oil and gas
explorer said it is considering selling part of its stake in a
Ugandan oil field.
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