European stocks ended the week close to all-time highs, with miners prominent as investors shrugged off worries about a third wave of COVID-19 infections and focused on prospects of a solid global economic recovery.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.91 percent to 426.93 on Friday, seven points short of a record high.
It increased 0.85 percent from a week earlier to record its fourth straight weekly rise.
Mining, and oil and gas stocks gave the biggest boost to the index, while defensive sectors including healthcare and utilities were slightly down.
Led by chipmakers, notably ASML and ASM International, the STOXX 600 tech index rose 2.72 percent to 670.81, posting a weekly gain of 4.49 percent, its biggest since early November.
Trading earlier in the week was subdued by worries about new lockdowns and a slow vaccination pace in the eurozone, but optimism about a stimulus-driven recovery in the US brightened the outlook for global growth.
“Ultimately — you still have abundant fiscal and monetary support as the economies open up,” said Ankit Gheedia, BNP Paribas’ head of equity and derivative strategy for Europe.
Although the market has been driven mainly by concerns of a third wave of COVID-19 and slower vaccinations in continental Europe over the past week, Gheedia said that supply is likely to pick up sharply over the next few weeks.
“It’s the best time to be long equities ... with value as a longer-term trade,” Gheedia said.
With rising hopes of a strong economic recovery, the world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal SA, rose 7.4 percent, while shares in Rio Tinto Group, Glencore PLC and BHP Group were up between 3.7 percent and 5 percent.
Morgan Stanley said global equities should slow down but Europe was poised to outperform relative to other markets, as it expects the region’s relative economic momentum to improve over the next three to six months.
Mining and oil stocks also helped London’s FTSE 100 index end a subdued week on a positive note, and higher retail sales last month underpinned optimism over a swifter global economic recovery.
The blue chip FTSE 100 index ended 0.99 percent higher at 6,740.59, and rose 0.48 percent from a week earlier.
“I don’t think investors are looking at anything other than single stocks scenarios, and you can tell by today’s market action there’s not a lot of real conviction out there apart from the metal and oil-related,” said Keith Temperton, an equity sales trader at Forte Securities.
The FTSE 100 has rebounded more than 36 percent from a COVID-19-driven crash last year.
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