Market Drivers – European Session 20/2/2023

European stocks were flat on Monday, as continued gains in mining stocks, on the back of bets on demand recovery in China, offset losses in Telecom Italia, which led the decline in stocks in the eurozone.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was little changed after rising slightly at the start of trading.

The basic resources index jumped 1.4 percent after industrial metal prices rose, hoping for a recovery in demand from China, the largest consumer, and supported by disruptions in global mining supplies.

This also led to higher oil prices and gains for European energy stocks by 0.3 percent.

The Euro Stoxx index, which includes the largest companies in the eurozone, fell 0.1 percent.

Telecom Italia shares fell 3 percent after a government-sponsored bid failed to pass an order from US investment bank KKR to take over the country’s mobile monopoly at the weekend.

Analysts of the US investment bank Goldman Sachs – in their latest notes published on Monday morning – explained that they expect that the reopening of China’s economy will cause a significant recovery on the demand side, and that economic activity will increase significantly during 2023 due to the recovery of pent-up demand as a result of the strict epidemic closures that lasted for a long time.

The dollar fell on Monday, but remained close to its highest level in six weeks, which it reached on Friday, after a recent batch of strong economic data reinforced market expectations of additional tightening of monetary policy from the Federal Reserve.

The dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.14 percent to 103.83, but rose by about 1.8 percent during the month, to remain on track for its first monthly rise since September. The index hit a six-week high of 104.67 on Friday.

Liquidity is expected to be limited on Monday due to the closure of markets in the US for the President’s Day holiday.