European stocks continued their positive performance, ending Thursday’s session with a record high, supported by strong gains in the healthcare sector.
Investors’ appetite for European stocks and AI-related technology stocks has improved.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.8% to close at 640.21 points.
It is the highest closing level in its history. During trading, it also recorded a new record level of 642.09 points, the largest daily gain for the index in about two weeks.
Healthcare Leads Gains
The healthcare sector was the main driver of the European market rally, rising by 1.5%, benefiting from the strong performance of a number of major companies.
The German company Bayer was the star of the session, jumping about 18.7%, following a decision issued by the US Supreme Court that limited thousands of lawsuits related to the herbicide “Roundup”, boosting investor confidence in the company.
Technology stocks regain momentum
Markets also benefited from the return of optimism to the technology sector.
The sectoral index rose 0.8% after recording gains of 2.5% during the session.
This performance was supported by positive expectations from Micron and Qualcomm.
This has helped to allay fears that the growth wave associated with AI may be slowing.
Martin Fransden, portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management, suggested that Europe may not have a large number of tech giants.
However, many European companies are still able to benefit from European equities and the accelerated growth in the sector.
Gains for prominent companies
The session also saw the shares of British airline easyJet rise by 6.4%, after rejecting the fourth takeover offer made by American investment firm Castle Lake.
In the automotive sector, Volkswagen rose 1.3% after announcing the sale of its Everlens diesel engine unit to Bain Capital.
In a deal whose revenues are estimated at 7.4 billion euros, equivalent to about $8.4 billion.
Analysts said that continued improvement in the results of European companies and European stocks, coupled with growing investments in technology and artificial intelligence, could give European stocks additional momentum in the coming period.
This is despite the continued anticipation of global economic developments.
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