CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-European shares hit near five-month high, eyes on Trump-Putin talks

Reuters
Aug 15
CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-European shares hit near five-month high, eyes on Trump-Putin talks

Corrects paragraph 3 to remove reference to Italy's stock index, as markets there are closed for a holiday.

Mining stocks lead sectoral gains

Pandora slumps on weakening European sales

ASML falls after U.S. peer Applied Materials' results

By Twesha Dikshit

Aug 15 (Reuters) - European shares hit a near five-month high on Friday, as investors drew support from a largely positive earnings season, while a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was also in focus.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.3%, as of 0853 GMT, driven by miners .SXPP and chemical stocks <.SX4P>. The index was on track for a second week of gains.

Most major regional bourses were also in the green, with the UK's FTSE 100 .FTSE trading at record highs, Germany's benchmark DAX .GDAX at a one-month high and Spain's IBEX .IBEX.

U.S. President Trump and his Russian counterpart Putin will meet later in the day in Alaska, with the U.S. hoping to seal a ceasefire agreement on Ukraine as well as negotiate a possible nuclear deal.

"Markets are waiting in particular for a ceasefire. There have been assumptions of that, leading to a certain outperformance of stocks that would benefit from a rebuild of Ukraine," said Uwe Hohmann, equity strategist at Metzler Capital Markets, referring to sectors such as banks and construction materials.

Global stocks rose despite a spike in U.S. producer price data reining in expectations of a 50 basis point rate cut from the Federal Reserve next month and weak Chinese economic data pointing to tariff-related impacts.

European company earnings have proven resilient, with LSEG I/B/E/S data on Tuesday showing that 54% of companies reporting so far have beaten estimates.

Mining stocks .SXPP were the top gainers on the day, adding 1.4%. Antofagasta ANTO.L rose 2% after the Chilean miner posted a jump in half-year core earnings on Thursday.

Anglo American AAL.L and Glencore GLEN.L were both up more than 2%.

NKT NKT.CO jumped 7.6% after the Danish power cable solutions provider updated its full-year financial outlook.

The world's biggest supplier of computer chip-making equipment ASML ASML.AS fell 1.8% after U.S. peer Applied Materials AMAT.O lowered its fourth-quarter earnings forecasts on weak demand in China and tariff-uncertainty related impacts.

The Dutch firm had issued a similar warning in mid-July, saying it might not achieve 2026 growth. Chip stocks BE Semiconductor BESI.AS and ASMI ASMI.AS dropped 2.5% and 1.9%, respectively.

Pandora PNDORA.CO was the top laggard on STOXX 600, falling 13.2%, after the Danish jewellery maker flagged weakening sales in its key European markets.

(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Eileen Soreng)

((Twesha.Dikshit@thomsonreuters.com;))

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