European shares climb on easing energy worries as Norway strike ends

By Devik Jain

(Reuters) -European shares rose on Wednesday as an end to strike by Norwegian oil and gas workers eased worries of energy supply crunch, while Just Eat Takeaway.com jumped after Amazon agreed to buy a stake in unit Grubhub.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 was up 1.7%, after ending 2.1% lower in the previous session as the strike in Norway threatened to cut energy supplies.

Germany’s DAX gained 1.6% after losing almost 3% in the previous session as industrial orders grew surprisingly in May, reversing the trend after a third consecutive monthly drop.

Stock markets have seesawed this year as constant flow of negative news ranging from talks of gas rationing in Europe, COVID-19 curbs in China and most recently a political crisis in Britain have dampened risk appetite.

The STOXX 600 has shed 16.5% so far this year as investors juggled to adjust their expectations of corporate profits and economic growth in the wake of aggressive central bank moves to tame rising prices.

“There’s an increasing acceptance of the risks of a global recession … it’s fair to say we have seen fairly significant de-rating across every sector of the European market, some of the caution and worries of recession are already reflected in some of these prices,” said Richard Dunbar, head of multi asset research at abrdn.

All eyes are on May Eurozone retail sales data at 0900 GMT amid red-hot inflation. Data last week showed consumer prices in June hit a record high and cemented the case for the European Central Bank to start raising rates this month, its first increase since 2011.

All European sectors were trading higher, with travel and leisure and technology up 2.9% and 2.7%, respectively.

Among individual stocks, Just Eat Takeaway.com jumped 17.2% after Amazon agreed to take a 2% stake in struggling U.S. meal delivery business Grubhub and said it will offer its Prime members access to the service for one year.

Abrdn gained 7.6% after the British asset manager announced a 300 million pounds share buyback programme.

Trainline climbed 20.6% after the UK rail operator forecast robust FY23 revenue growth as demand for travel rebounds.

Faurecia fell 4.7% after Barclays double-downgraded its rating on the French car parts maker’s stock to “underweight”.

Uniper slid 7.5% as its Finnish parent Fortum was in talks with Germany to ease the financial problems of the German utility.

Separately, the S&P also placed Uniper and Fortum ratings on creditwatch negative.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Arun Koyyur)