European Shares Rise, Zalando Leads

On Tuesday, European shares rose for the fifth consecutive day, reinforced by banks and retails stock. The STOXX 600 index increased 0.3 percent with Germany’s DAX taking the lead at a 0.6 percent rise. Spanish and Italian exchange showed signs of decline, on the other hand.

Zalando, whose results boosted the retail sector, reported an increase of more than 10 percent. According to the European e-commerce giant, it expected to post an operating profit report for Q1. Zalando stock has surged 84 percent this year, bolstered by its target to rival Hennes & Mauritz AB within five years, and even top the Swedish clothing retailer’s profit levels in the following years.

According to an analyst at Baader Bank, the sales momentum of Zalando is expected “to accelerate in the course of 2019”.

The company will report its earnings on May 2.

UniCredit SpA, considered as Italy’s top bank, reported gains after it agreed to pay $1.3 billion to U.S. authorities, along with two of its subsidiaries, in attempts to settle the investigations regarding violations of U.S. sanctions.

On the flip side, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup reported lower-than-usual revenue estimates, although both banks have beaten quarterly profit estimates. This, however, caused shares of both lenders to decline.

The chief market analyst at TF Global Markets (UK) Ltd in London said, "We saw a sort of a selloff in Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup but if you look at the earnings, you can clearly see the earnings were really really strong,"

"This optimism is really feeding into the European banking sector as well. When they will start to announce their earnings, the expectations are high that we are going to see some good numbers coming out of the European banks after a long time."

In other news, investors maintained temporary confidence a week prior as central banks in the U.S. and Europe sustained a dovish stance, while talks on Brexit recommence as Britain lawmakers got extensions with regards to arriving with a decision.

The STOXX 50 index fell for the sixth day, reaching its lowest since mid-January of last year.


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