European Shares Mostly Higher Ahead Of ECB Minutes

European stocks advanced on Thursday, even as a cautious undertone prevailed following hawkish Federal Reserve minutes and Washington’s new sanctions against Russia.

After digesting more details about the Federal Reserve’s plan to shrink its massive $9 trillion balance sheet, investors now await the European Central Bank’s minutes due later in the day for further direction.

The minutes from the ECB’s March meeting could shed light on how the central bank is to switch to a tightening regime.

The pan European Stoxx 600 rose 0.6 percent to 458.65 after losing 1.5 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX edged up 0.4 percent and France’s CAC 40 index added half a percent while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent, dragged down by commodity-related stocks.

Shares of Electrolux AB jumped 5.4 percent in Sweden after the home appliances giant said that it expects to report a positive non-recurring item of $70.5 million or 656 million Swedish kronor in the first quarter.

Energy giant Shell fell 1.5 percent after an announcement that it would write off between $4 and $5 billion in the value of its assets after pulling out of Russia.

Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore dropped 1-3 percent on concerns over the impact of aggressive monetary policy tightening in the United States.

British sports betting giant Entain dropped about 1 percent after publishing its Q1 2022 trading update.

Gerresheimer surged 3.2 percent. The German manufacturer of primary packaging products for medication and drug delivery devices raised its revenue guidance for 2022 after delivering double-digit growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter.

In economic releases, Eurozone retail sales rose 0.3 percent month-on-month in February, slightly faster than the 0.2 percent increase in January, data published by Eurostat showed. However, sales were slower than the expected growth of 0.6 percent.

U.K. house prices gained 1.4 percent in March from February, when prices were up 0.8 percent, survey data from the Lloyds Bank subsidiary Halifax revealed. This was the fastest growth since September. Average property price reached another new record high of GBP 282,753.

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