Europe midday: Stoxx rallies as French PM survives confidence votes

(Sharecast News) - European shares rallied on Thursday with France in focus as Prime Minister S�bastien Lecornu survived two no confidence votes.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was 0.40% higher with the UK FTSE 100 down 0.08% and France's CAC 40 rallying by 0.69%.

Lecornu on Wednesday said he would suspend a controversial pension reform until after the 2027 election, giving equities a boost. He now has the tricky task of getting the rest of the government's unpopular budget measures through parliament, including spending cuts.

MPs are angry at President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise France's retirement age from 62 to 64. Lecornu's proposed suspension of the 2023 pension reform swayed opposition Socialist Party lawmakers against efforts to oust the prime minister.

In economic news, the Eurozone posted a trade surplus of �1bn in August, down from �3bn a year earlier and sharply lower than both the �12.4bn recorded in July and the �6.9bn expected by economists.

Initial estimates from Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical office, revealed that exports from the bloc fell 4.7% year-on-year to �205.9bn, while imports declined 3.8% to �204.9bn.

Imports from the rest of the world stood at �204.9bn, a fall of 3.8% compared with August 2024, while intra-euro area trade rose to �1.73bn in January-August, up by 1.4% versus the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile across the channel, the UK economy expanded modestly in August, according to official data, supported by the UK's dominant services sector.

GDP grew by 0.3% in the three months to August, in line with expectations and a slight increase on the 0.2% uplift seen in July.

In equity news, shares in Premier Inn owner Whitbread fell as the company downgraded its full-year profit outlook for Germany on Thursday as it posted a drop in group interim profits and revenue.

Nestle shares jumped as new CEO Philipp Navratil laid out plans to sack 16,000 workers in the next two years in an effort to boost sales and cut costs.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com