European stocks jumped nearly 4% on news of a truce with Iran

European stocks amid news of a two-week ceasefire in the Middle East began trading on April 8 with significant growth, close to the maximum since 2022, Bloomberg writes. Gas prices in Europe also fell by 20% at the moment, reaching the lowest level since the beginning of the war.

After the U.S. and Iran agreed on a two-week ceasefire in exchange for Tehran's resumption of access to the Strait of Hormuz and oil supplies - the Stoxx 50 index (reflects the dynamics of the 50 largest and most liquid blue chip stocks in 11 eurozone countries) added 4,7%, the pan-European Stoxx 600 jumped by 3.9% in the first hour of trading, the French CAC 40 rose by 4.2%, the British FTSE 100 added 2.4%, the German DAX gained 5%.

Leading the growth were shares of automobile, mining and travel companies, rising 5.5%, 5.8% and 7.8%, respectively, CNBC wrote.

Since the war in the Middle East began in late February and as of April 7, the Stoxx 600 has fallen 6.8%, remaining virtually unchanged since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, on April 8, June futures for the benchmark Mark Brent oil fell by almost 15% to $92.99 per barrel; May contracts for North American WTI crashed by almost 16% against the previous close - at $94.96. Natural gas prices in Europe also lost 20% at the moment: at the time of publication, Dutch gas futures for delivery next month are trading down 16%.

"Markets are clearly moving up on this news [of the cease-fire], and we should expect traders at the open to sell oil and defense stocks and buy things that have been hit hardest during the crisis - such as the financial sector and commodities companies," said Pictet senior investment adviser Christopher Dembick (quoted by Bloomberg).

"For financial markets, this may be the end of one episode, but for the global economy, the inflationary shock is just beginning, especially for food and raw materials," he added.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor