(Reuters) – European stocks jumped on Thursday after upbeat economic outlook from the U.S. Federal Reserve boosted risk appetite, with investors turning to the European Central Bank for its policy update.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.4% by 0813 GMT, eyeing its best day in over a week, with tech and energy sectors leading the gains.
The Fed on Wednesday flagged a long-awaited end to its pandemic-era bond purchases in March and signalled as many as three rate hikes in 2022, but delivered an otherwise upbeat economic outlook.
The ECB and the Bank of England are set to hold policy meetings later in the day. ECB officials are likely to draw down the bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, but investors are waiting to gauge how the six-year-old Asset Purchase Programme may pick up the slack with rate rises still a while away.
Among individual stocks, Swiss pharma company Novartis AG jumped 3.3% after launching a new share buyback of up to $15 billion to be executed by the end of 2023.
Airbus SE rose 3.3% after Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd chose the European planemaker as the preferred supplier to replace its domestic fleet, switching from Boeing.
(Reporting by Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
