European shares jumped on Thursday, with China-exposed stocks such as luxury and miners outperforming on news of aggressive Chinese economic stimulus, while chip stocks also advanced following US firm Micron’s strong revenue forecast.Chinese leaders pledged to deploy “necessary fiscal spending” to meet this year’s economic growth target of roughly 5 per cent, acknowledging new problems and raising market expectations for fresh stimulus on top of measures announced this week.
There was also a gain for Kingspan, which rose 0.8 per cent to €86.95, while Kerry Group finished 0.5 per cent higher at €93.65.The FTSE 100 closed 0.2 per cent up, lagging its European peers as energy giants slipped tracking declining crude oil prices, which offset gains from China-exposed pockets of the market following Beijing’s latest pledge for more policy measures.
China-exposed luxury firms such as LVMH and Hermes gained around 9 per cent each. A gauge of ten of Europe’s biggest luxury firms rose 6.5 per cent. Mining stocks also jumped 4.3 per cent on elevated base metal prices. Micron Technology jumped 12.9 per cent after the memory chip maker forecast higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue, underscoring that demand for memory chips used in AI computing was robust.