European shares recover from worst session in two months; UMG soars in debut

September 21, 2021

By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) -European shares rose on Tuesday after their biggest fall in two months on easing worries about the spillover from the crisis at China’s Evergrande, while music label Universal Music Group soared 35% in its stock market debut.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 1.0% after sinking to a two-month low in the previous session.

Travel & leisure, media , mining and energy stocks led gains, while Germany’s DAX rebounded from its lowest level since late July.

“European markets have been much more adept at holding on to their gains today than their U.S. counterparts,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.

Travel-related stocks including British Airways-owner IAG, cruiseliner Carnival Corp and InterContinental Hotels Group jumped between 2% and 5% following the relaxation of U.S. travel curbs.

M&A activity on Tuesday also boosted sentiment. Shares of British sports betting and gambling company Entain Plc surged 18.0% on a report that U.S. sports betting firm DraftKings made a $20 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy the company.

Britain’s National Express rose 7.6% after rival Stagecoach Group said it was in talks with National Express about a possible all-share merger.

Stagecoach’s shares jumped 27.0%.

Universal Music Group, the business behind singers such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, surged 35.7% in its first day of trading, giving it a market capitalisation of more than 46 billion euros ($54 billion).

Shares of owner Vivendi soared 67.2%.

Global markets were roiled on Monday by concerns the potential default by Evergrande, the world’s biggest property developer, could hurt China’s real estate sector, banks and the global economy. [MKTS/GLOB]

Evergrande, struggling for cash, owes $305 billion.

Focus this week is also on policy meetings at a slate of central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, with investors expecting some of them to indicate they are ready to ease their pandemic-era stimulus to combat high inflation.

“Evidently investors there are concerned that the tapering announcement may come with hints of what the Fed might do next regarding rate increases as well, something much more concerning for markets,” IG’s Beauchamp said.

Europe’s benchmark STOXX 600 has fallen from record highs in September after seven straight months of gains on fears of persistently high COVID-19 cases and signs of a slowdown in the global economic recovery.

Sweden’s gardening power tools group Husqvarna tumbled 6.9% after warning it could potentially lose top line sales of up to 2 billion crowns ($230.7 million) due to a supplier dispute.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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