European Shares Mostly Higher In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks were mostly higher on Thursday after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election for July 4 and a survey showed business activity in the euro zone accelerated in May.

The HCOB Flash Eurozone purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by S&P Global improved to 52.3 from 51.7 in April. That was the highest reading in 12 months.

The pan European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 percent at 522.11 after declining 0.3 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX edged up 0.1 percent, while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both were marginally higher.

Embracer shares plummeted 9.2 percent. The Swedish-based gaming conglomerate said its CFO and deputy CEO Johan Ekström would step down after five years for personal reasons.

Norwegian telecoms company Telenor ASA declined 1 percent on news that Sigve Brekke will be stepping down as President & CEO of the company on December 1.

Nvidia's shares jumped 6.4 percent in Frankfurt after record sales of artificial intelligence chips sent the company's revenue soaring 262 percent in the past quarter.

ASML NV rallied 3.2 percent and Infineon Technologies rose about 1 percent. German ticketing firm CTS Eventim climbed 9.2 percent after Q1 EBITDA beat forecasts.

Merck KGaA, a leading science and technology company, was marginally higher after it agreed to a $600m deal to buy life science company Mirus Bio.

Gerresheimer soared 9.5 percent. The packaging and medical equipment maker Gerresheimer has signed a purchase agreement for acquiring Blitz LuxCo Sarl.

National Grid shares plunged 9 percent in London after the electricity and gas utility unveiled plans to raise about 7 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) through a fully underwritten rights issue of 1.09 billion new shares.

Drax was down 8.7 percent, Pennon Group fell nearly 7 percent and United Utilities dropped more than 5 percent.

Wizz Air Holdings surged 5 percent after the low-cost airline returned to profit in FY24.

Hargreaves Lansdown jumped 12 percent after the investment platform rejected a surprise takeover offer from a group of private equity buyers.

Insurer Aviva dropped 1 percent despite reporting strong results for its first quarter.