Europe midday: Shares hold gains amid corporate earnings, oil price spike

(Sharecast News) - European shares were within touching distance of record highs on Thursday amid a flurry of corporate earnings, with oil in focus after prices jumped more than 4.5% in response to US sanctions on Russian producers Rosneft and Lukoil.

The pan-regional Stoxx 600 was up 0.3% at 574 by 1143 BST, just below the record intra-day high of 574.74. Germany's DAX gave up morning gains to be 0.28% lower while the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.53%.

The US overnight imposed fresh sanctions on the two companies as it looked to ramp up pressure on Moscow to end its war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump said that while he continued to have "good conversations" with his Russia counterpart Vladimir Putin, "they don't go anywhere".

Brent crude jumped almost 5% to $64 a barrel on the news.

"Oil prices are moving sharply higher as Trump seemingly ran out of patience with Putin. The Ukrainians are unwilling to give up any land that they currently control, while the Russians want the rest of the crucial Donbas region which has huge strategic and economic significance," said Marketscope analyst Joshua Mahony.

"With the US going straight after Russia's biggest oil producers, and Europe banning Russian LNG, there is a hope that we will see Putin come to the table in a bid to find some sort of resolution."

"Notably, the failure of previous sanctions have been related to the Russian ability to sell their oil to India and China, but there are claims that India finally looks ready to slash its Russian imports to zero. That move would be done in a bid to reduce US tariffs from 50% to 15%, although the speed at which their energy supply transition would take hold is currently uncertain."

Energy stocks were up on the news with BP, Shell, Aker BP and Equinor all higher.

In other equity news, Nokia jumped as the Finnish telecoms giant posted quarterly results revealing higher sales but lower profits.

Rentokil surged on the back of higher third quarter revenues.

Shares in Dassault Systemes slumped 16% after the French software company cut full-year revenue growth guidance and published third-quarter results below consensus.

Evolution Gaming plunged after the company missed quarterly profit estimates.

Kering soared after the French luxury group posted third-quarter group sales that fell less than expected, while Rentokil Initial jumped almost 11% after reporting a 3.4% rise in third-quarter organic revenue.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com