European shares lifted by miners and tech; Mideast in focus

Wed, 13th May 2026 17:53

* Tech, miners shares aid broader index

* Merck jumps after lifting 2026 profit outlook

* EU ⁠earnings to rise at their fastest pace in three years

* Focus on Trump-Xi summit in Beijing (Updates after markets close)

May 13 (Reuters) - European shares ended higher on Wednesday, ‌led by gains in mining stocks, though caution lingered as investors weighed the economic impact of elevated oil prices driven by the ⁠Iran war.

The pan-European STOXX 600 closed up 0.8% at 611.42 points, ⁠recovering from a 1% slide on Tuesday.

The basic resources index jumped 4.4% to a record high, tracking higher base metal prices and leading sectoral advances. It is Europe's best-performing sector this year.

With first-quarter earnings season drawing to a close, corporate profits are expected to grow at their fastest pace ‌in three years. European earnings are forecast to have risen 10.2% in the quarter, according to LSEG-compiled data.

Earlier in the session, German drugmaker Merck lifted its full-year adjusted operating profit forecast, sending its shares up 7.2%.

Allianz rose 1% after the insurance company posted a 52% jump in first-quarter net profit, while ABN Amro added 8.6% after beating quarterly profit estimates, marking its biggest daily gain since February last year.

"When you look at earnings growth for the whole year ... that would ‌be quite an improvement from the past years, so we're a bit cautious on that to see if that will be realised," said Joost van Leenders, senior ‌investment strategist at Van Lanschot Kempen.

Despite Wednesday's gains, the STOXX index has underperformed Asian and U.S. peers due to Europe's lower exposure to AI hardware stocks.

The STOXX 600 is up 4.7% this quarter, compared with a 13.8% rise in the S&P 500 and rallies of about 30% and 55% in benchmark indexes in Taiwan and South Korea, respectively.

European semiconductor stocks Infineon Technologies , STMicroelectronics ‌and Aixtron each gained about 10% on Wednesday.

"Europe has not had the type of rally that the U.S. and some of the Asian countries have had, (and) it's not out of the question for global investors to look at European shares ⁠and say, there's ⁠a relative value trade here," said Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive ‌Brokers.

Globally, investors were focused on a high-stakes summit in China, where U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Investors are watching whether Trump will press China to use its ties with Tehran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, with Iranian ‌restrictions keeping oil prices above $100 a barrel despite a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

Rising inflation risks have pushed money markets to price in more than two European Central Bank rate hikes by year-end. (Reporting by Twesha Dikshit, Avinash P and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru. Editing by Leroy Leo and Mark Potter)