EUROPEAN EQUITY UPDATE: Stocks remain at the whim of events in Ukraine

Analysis details (09:42)

In what continues to be an incredibly fluid situation, European equities remain largely at the whim of updates on the Ukraine-Russia situation. Late Tuesday, a senior US administration official pushed back on Russian claims of troop withdrawals from the Ukraine border and suggested that Russia had actually been increasing its presence in the area. Thereafter, a notable bout of risk-aversion was prompted during the APAC session after Russian press reported that Ukrainian armed forces fired mortar shells and grenades on four Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) localities; reports which were later denied by Ukraine. This set Europe up for a soft open with the Eurostoxx 50 future lower by around 0.8% at 06:00GMT. However, this pessimism was eventually scaled back with some desks drawing attention to a slew of encouraging corporate updates from across the region. European equities were subsequently seen firmer at the open with the Eurostoxx 50 higher to the tune of 0.4%. However, in what has been a choppy session, European stocks trimmed gains alongside comments from the Ukraine military that Russian occupying forces fired on a village in the Luhansk region. As it stands, the Eurostoxx 50 hovers around the unchanged mark and will likely continue to be swayed by the toing and froing between Russian and Ukraine media briefings. US futures trade on the backfoot with the Mar’22 ES -0.5% with yesterday’s FOMC minutes very much in the rear-view mirror and ahead of the unofficial end of US earnings season with Walmart due to report at 12:00GMT. Back to Europe, sectors are a mixed bag as aforementioned earnings updates dictate the state-of-play. Near the top of the leaderboard, Personal Goods and Grocery names have been supported by earnings from Reckitt Benckiser (+5.3%) and Carrefour (+4.3%). Whilst for the luxury sector, Kering (+6.7%) sits at the top of the CAC after FY21 results exceeded expectations with the Co. confident that profitability can improve even in an inflationary environment. Other gainers include German lender Commerzbank (+6.2%) following strong Q4 results, elsewhere in the banking sector, Standard Chartered (-4.7%) sits at the foot of the FTSE 100 following less impressive results. 

17 Feb 2022 - 09:42- Equities- Source: Newsquawk