European stocks hit the highest level in 9 months

European stocks hit their highest level in more than nine months on Wednesday, as investors got positive cues from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on Tuesday, while the upbeat outlook of Linda and Akzo Noble led to higher materials stocks. Crude and chemicals.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.6% by 0818 GMT, its strongest level since April 2022.

Market participants interpreted Powell’s remarks, in which he said that 2023 is expected to witness “significant declines in inflation,” as heralding less severe monetary tightening than they had feared, despite his admission that the latest jobs report in the United States shows that the process of Getting inflation back to the 2 percent target will take “some time”.

The chemicals sector topped the list of gainers.

German gas giant Linda jumped 2.4% and Dutch coatings maker Akzo Nobel 6.5% after raising its 2023 profit forecast.

Finnish refiner Neste jumped 11 percent, becoming the best performer on the Stoxx 600 index.

Norwegian energy company Equinor rose 6.1% after achieving a record adjusted operating profit of $74.9 billion for 2022.

Italy’s state-owned Banque Monte dei Paschi di Siena rose 1.4 percent after posting a much larger-than-expected quarterly profit.