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European markets rose on Tuesday morning as investors reacted to falling oil prices and a large amount of corporate earnings.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.6% more in early trade, with insurance stocks adding 2.1% to lead gains as most sectors and major exchanges entered positive territory.
World oil markets are focused on oil prices that continue to fall as the coronavirus has affected world oil demand, leading to a drop in prices.
Oil prices fell 12% during overnight operations, extending Monday’s drop of nearly 25% amid current fears that worldwide storage is filling up rapidly.
Asian stocks have also been reacting to falling oil prices overnight with the markets remaining unchanged.
The coronavirus pandemic remains the key feature of the news for the markets. According to reports, more than 3 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide and more than 210,800 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Follow our live updates on the pandemic here.
Earnings in focus
BP did not meet earnings expectations to post an underlying replacement cost gain in the first quarter, used as a proxy for net profit, of $ 800 million. That compares to $ 2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2019, reflecting a 67% drop.
UBS reported Tuesday a 40% increase in earnings for the first quarter of 2020 in the prior year, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of $ 1.6 billion.
Santander, the second largest bank in the euro area by market value, reported an 82% year-over-year decrease in first quarter net profit due to higher provisions for credit losses expected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Bigger moves
In terms of individual share price action, Lufthansa shares rose more than 7.5% in early operations after reports that the German state had agreed to grant the airline a rescue package worth around 9 billion euros.
Games Workshop stock added 7% after estimating that its pre-tax profit for the year ending May 31, 2020 would be no less than £ 70 million ($ 87 million).
At the other end of the European benchmark, German payments company Wirecard fell more than 16% after publishing a KPMG report on its accounting practices, which found no suspicious activity.
– Pippa Stevens, Eustance Huang, and Yen Nee Lee contributed to reporting this story.
