Europe close: Shares rally as food delivery companies gain
European shares ended the day firmly in the black on Wednesday after a lacklustre start, tracking gains on Wall Street, as food delivery stocks rallied.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.9% at 478.36, Germany’s DAX rose 1% to 15,593.47 and France’s CAC 40 ended 1.2% higher at 7,051.67.
Britain’s FTSE 100 closed 0.6% firmer as data showed third-quarter GDP growth, before the emergence of the Omicron Covid variant, grew slower than earlier thought, at 1.1%. It was also a marked slowdown from the 5.4% growth seen in the in the second quarter when restrictions were lifted.
Still, significant upward revisions to 2020 data meant that GDP was 1.5% below where it was at the end of 2019, revised up from a previous estimate of 2.1% below. This was tempered by a 2.5% fall in business investment.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Some preliminary results from the UK Health and Security agency around the effects of the Omicron variant appear to be being received positively today. In line with South Africa’s experience, it would appear that the Omicron variant does indeed appear to be milder, although the report also suggests that the higher infection rate could also place increased strain on hospitals, if enough people get it even if mortality is lower.
"Nonetheless, it is still good news, and helps justify the move to delay a decision on new restrictions in England until after Christmas, and potentially allow greater leeway next week when restrictions could well change again."
In equity news, there was an appetite for food delivery stocks as Delivery Hero rose after the German food delivery group said it would scale down its Foodpanda operations in Germany and sell the subsidiary's Japan unit.
Just Eat Takeaway.com rose after the food delivery firm announced a deal with One Stop, a British convenience store chain owned by Tesco, to handle orders and deliveries on its platform.
Shares in Sweden’s Lundin Energy tumbled after it announced that Norway's Aker BP will buy its oil and gas business, forming the second-largest listed petroleum firm on the Norwegian continental shelf.