European Stock Markets Mixed on Thursday
The Euro Stoxx 600 general index opened down 0.3 percent in Europe on Thursday, while the FTSE 100 index in London and the DAX index in Germany were both down 0.4 percent. However, Stockholm’s OMXS30 index was down only 0.3 percent.
Thursday was a significant day for several large European companies, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Nestle, and Airbus, as they released their earnings reports. Deutsche Bank reported a profit increase of 1.275 billion euros in the first quarter, a 10 percent rise compared to the previous year. Analysts had predicted a result of 1.23 billion euros, but the company’s net sales also rose by 1 percent year-on-year to 7.8 billion euros, close to the forecast of 7.73 billion euros.
Barclays also exceeded analysts’ expectations with a first-quarter profit fall to 1.55 billion pounds, down from 1.78 billion pounds a year ago. Analysts had expected an operating profit of £1.29 billion, but Nestle reported a decline of revenue from a year ago by only by only 5.9 percent to reach Swiss francs 22.1 billion which was falling short of analysts’ forecasts by only by only 1%
Meanwhile British mining giant Anglo American disclosed that Australian competitor BHP had made an offer to purchase it for £31 .1 billion ,the deal is currently under evaluation by Anglo American’s board ,if it goes through it could mark one of the largest mergers in the mining industry in recent years .