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The
pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 2.2%, hitting its highest
since March 3.
Battered stock markets in China and Hong Kong surged after Vice
Premier Liu He said Beijing will roll out more measures to boost
the Chinese economy as well as favourable policy steps for its
capital markets.
Dutch tech investor Prosus, which has a huge stake in China's
Tencent, surged nearly 20% after hitting all-time lows in the
previous session. The stock led the wider technology index up
nearly 4.7%.
Other China-exposed sectors such as miners and autos were up
between 2.1% and 3.2%. Luxury stocks LVMH, Richemont and Hermes,
also reliant on China for a large part of their revenue, gained
between 4.8% and 7.8%.
"The hope of a turning point in Chinese equities is boosting
global stocks and the importance of China to the global economy
cannot be understated," said Roger Jones, head of equities at
London & Capital.
Investors also took comfort from Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy's comments on Wednesday that peace talks with Russia
were sounding more realistic.
The Ukraine crisis has sent commodity prices soaring, with crude
prices breaching $139 a barrel at one point and raising fears of
high inflation.
While crude prices are currently trading at $102, investors are
worried about aggressive tightening by major central banks to
tame inflation.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest
rates by 25 basis points when it releases its policy decision at
1800 GMT on Wednesday.
Investors will be looking closely at the updated quarterly
economic and interest rate projections, the first concrete
guidance about how inflation and the Ukraine crisis has
influenced policymakers.
Among other individual stocks, Sweden-based private equity fund
EQT jumped 7.9% after it said it had agreed to buy investment
firm Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) in a deal worth 6.8
billion euros ($7.5 billion).
German carmaker BMW gained 2.4% despite lowering its profit
margin expectations for its automotive segment for 2022 due to
the war in Ukraine.
Zara owner Inditex inched up 0.8% after it reported its net
profit more than doubled in 2021 after its sales almost
recovered from the pandemic.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil
D'Silva)
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