European Markets Finish Higher On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The major European markets found support on Thursday as bourses in Germany and France erased losses from the previous session, while the UK was shuttered for its Spring Bank holiday.

The European markets continue to balance slowing economic growth and record high inflation against the outlook for interest rates ahead of the European Central Bank's meeting next week.

Declining oil prices also boosted sentiment. Both Brent and WTI crude futures fell over 2 percent after the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia was prepared to pump more oil to compensate for any Russian output loss because of the Western sanctions imposed on it.

For the day, Germany's DAX jumped 144.70 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 14,485.17 and the CAC 40 in France improved 81.55 points or 1.27 percent to end at 6,500.44.

In Germany, Delivery Hero surged 4.50 percent, while Covestro soared 2.25 percent, Infineon Technologies spiked 2.21 percent, Siemens jumped 2.17 percent, Bayer dropped 1.84 percent, Deutsche Post climbed 1.25 percent, Deutsche Borse advanced 0.75 percent, Deutsche Bank lost 0.72 percent, Heidelberg Cement added 0.56 percent and Deutsche Telekom eased 0.14 percent.

In France, Atos skyrocketed 7.99 percent, while Compagnie de Saint-Gobain surged 4.79 percent, L'Oreal spiked 3.12 percent, Vivendi jumped 2.63 percent, Carrefour rallied 1.66 percent, Orange lost 0.71 percent, Societe Generale lost 0.36 percent, BNP Paribas dipped 0.26 percent and Credit Agricole was down 0.18 percent.

In economic news, Producer prices in the euro area saw a monthly increase of 1.2 percent in April, Eurostat data showed earlier today. In the entire European Union (EU27), the figure was up 1.3 percent month-on-month.

On an annual basis, producer prices in the euro area and in the entire European Union in April skyrocketed 37.2 percent and 37 percent, respectively.