European stocks were little changed in cautious trade on Monday, with energy stocks outperforming as crude prices jumped after Houthi rebels targeted various Saudi Aramco oil and gas sites across the kingdom over the weekend.
Market participants are bracing for more turmoil this week amid reports that EU governments are considering whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was little changed at 454.69 after clocking its biggest weekly percentage gain last week.
The German DAX and France’s CAC 40 index were seeing marginal gains while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose half a percent.
French gas supplier Air Liquide was moving lower after it joined hands with Eni, an Italian energy firm, to assess decarbonization solutions in the Mediterranean region of Europe focused on hard-to-abate industrial sectors. Shares of the latter jumped 2.7 percent on the back of higher oil prices.
Royal Dutch Shell and BP Plc both rallied around 2.5 percent as Brent crude futures rose more than $3 above $111 a barrel.
Miner Antofagasta jumped more than 4 percent after it agreed a deal with Canadian partner Barrick Gold Corp and authorities in Pakistan to exit the Reko Diq mine.
Cloud-based software company SAP SE lost 2 percent. The German company announced that its Chief Financial Officer and Executive Board Member, Luka Mucic, will depart the company on March 31, 2023.
Steel producer Salzgitter Group rose nearly 3 percent after delivering the best pre-tax result in 13 years.
In economic releases, Germany’s producer prices continued to accelerate on energy prices in February, data published by Destatis showed earlier today.
Producer price inflation accelerated further to 25.9 percent in February from 25.0 percent in January. Nonetheless, this was slightly slower than the expected growth of 26.2 percent.
On a monthly basis, producer prices gained 1.4 percent, slower than the 2.2 percent increase in the previous month and also the economists’ forecast of 1.7 percent.
European Shares Give Up Early Gains
2022-03-21 09:44:55