Europe midday: Hormuz blockade hits Stoxx, boosts oil; Nokia surges

(Sharecast News) - European markets were lower and oil prices pushed beyond $100 a barrel as the continuing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz overshadowed the extension of the Iran war ceasefire.

Despite buoyant US markets overnight, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.4% to 611 at 1144 BST. Germany's DAX fell 0.56%, Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.87% lower, France's CAC 40 bucked the trend with a 0.08% gain and Italy's MIB declined by 0.38%.

Brent crude was up 1.47% to $103 a barrel as the vital Strait of Hormuz remained blockaded. On Wednesday Iranian forces seized two ships in the waterway as the US and Iran both imposed separate blockades.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and the country's lead negotiator, said late on Wednesday that reopening the strait of Hormuz would be "impossible" while the US and Israel committed "flagrant" breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said their naval forces had stopped two ships attempting to cross the strait and brought them to shore.

"If you handed a market chart to an alien - any of the big ones, including US, European or tech-heavy Asian indices - they would barely guess that the world is being shaken by intense geopolitical tensions that brought transit at one of the planet's most critical chokepoints to a near-halt, that the situation has been going on for nearly two months, threatening a man-made energy shortage across the planet, and that there is no light at the end of the tunnel," said Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

"They wouldn't guess either that world leaders now prefer tweeting threats on social media as a new form of diplomacy."

On the economics front, private-sector output across the eurozone contracted at its sharpest rate in almost a year and a half in April, as resilience among manufacturers was outweighed by a renewed downturn within the services sector.

The flash estimate of S&P Global's eurozone composite purchasing managers' index, which tracks developments across the services and manufacturing sectors combined, dropped to 48.6 this month from 50.7 in March.

This was the first dip below the neutral 50-point mark in 16 months and the lowest level recorded since November 2024, with sentiment among firms falling to its lowest since late-2022.

In equity news, STMicroelectronics share surged as the chipmaker posted better than expected first quarter sales numbers, driven by strong demand.

Nokia share price hit a 16-year high after first-quarter results impressed investors with strong growth in the Optical Networks division as sales from AI and cloud customers soared.

Saab shares were lower despite the Swedish aerospace and defence group reported a larger than expected rise in first-quarter operating profit.

BioM�rieux plunged more than 18% to the bottom of the Stoxx as the diagnostics specialist cut its 2026 outlook.

French jet engine maker Safran gained as it said it expected full year earnings to be at the upper end of guidance after first-quarter revenue beat estimates.

Shares in Dassault Systemes jumped as the French software maker reported first-quarter revenue in line with expectations and held full-year guidance.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com