European shares end higher as earnings barrage impresses

By Shashwat Chauhan and Pranav Kashyap

(Reuters) -European shares closed higher on Friday, boosted by an earnings-driven advance across several sectors including luxury, while global markets remained stable after data showed an improving U.S. inflation picture.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.8% higher after hitting a more than two-month low in the previous session, logging a marginal weekly advance of about 0.5%.

EssilorLuxottica jumped 7.4% after the Ray-Ban maker's CEO said Meta had told him it might take a stake in the company, while Hermes rose 3.4% after slightly beating second-quarter sales expectations.

A gauge of 10 of Europe's biggest luxury names advanced 2.9%, logging its biggest single-day jump in six months.

Construction and materials led gains amongst the major STOXX sectors, adding 1.7%, with France's Vinci up 3.5% after the highway operator posted first-half revenue growth and margin expansion.

Meanwhile global markets remained sanguine after data showed U.S. prices rose moderately in June, underscoring an improving inflation environment that potentially positions the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates in September.

"Today's PCE number gives more evidence that we're on the downward slope in terms of inflation," said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.

Following the data, expectations rose that the Fed might use its meeting next week to signal that it could start cutting interest rates in September.

Europe's benchmark index ended the week mostly subdued as a barrage of downbeat earnings including luxury heavyweight LVMH, carmaker Stellantis and Nestle earlier in the week offset rebounding tech shares.

Autos was the worst performing sector this week, while health care was the best with a 2.2% weekly gain.

Among other headlining stocks, French IT consulting group Capgemini lost 2.5%, forecasting a surprise fall in annual revenue.

Hexagon shed 3.3% after the Swedish industrial technology group reported second-quarter results below expectations and said the slowdown in construction and automotive markets would continue to weigh on the trading environment in the third quarter.

Konecranes jumped 14.2% to the top of the STOXX 600 after the Finnish engineering group reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates.

The UK's NatWest added 7% after the lender said it has bought a 2.4 billion pound ($3.09 billion) mortgage book from Metro Bank and upgraded its performance outlook for the year.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Jan Harvey)