European shares edge up on US debt deal optimism

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) – European shares edged higher on Monday as investors drew comfort from a tentative deal reached by U.S. lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling and avert a default.

The pan-European index inched up 0.1%, with oil & gas and real estate indexes leading sectoral gains.

Trading volumes were light with markets in the United States, the UK and several European countries closed.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday finalised a budget agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, and said the deal was ready to move to Congress for a vote.

“How long the enthusiasm lasts will be dependent on how smoothly or otherwise the next step of the process is,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

“Getting the House and the Senate to approve a deal is easier said than done, so traders will be watching events in Washington this week to see how much arm twisting and revising needs to be done to get the deal signed off.”

After rallying to multi-year highs on the back of an upbeat earnings season earlier in May, European stocks have come under pressure recently on concerns about the U.S. debt ceiling standoff and signs of a global economic slowdown.

Shares of SBB jumped 7.4% from record lows after the struggling Swedish real estate group said it is broadening a strategic review to include a potential sale of the whole company or some of its business segments. Fitch on Friday cut its credit rating to so-called junk status, citing insufficient deleveraging.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan extended his two decades in power in elections on Sunday, winning a mandate to pursue increasingly authoritarian policies, which have polarised the country and strengthened its position as a regional military power.

Spain’s BBVA (BME:), among the European companies most exposed to Turkey, slipped 0.4%, while Paris-listed Lyxor MSCI Turkey ETF added 0.8%.

Spain’s IBEX climbed 0.3% after the country’s conservative People’s Party (PP) elbowed out the ruling Socialists during local elections on Sunday, with voters fed up at squabbling within Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government coalition.