European stocks advanced on Thursday, with the STOXX 50 up 0.3% and the STOXX 600 gaining 0.6%, the latter setting a new record high. The move extended the strong rally from the previous session, when a Democratic sweep in the US Congress sparked a broad-based rebound in global equity markets.
Investors continued to monitor the corporate earnings season for further direction. Gains were driven primarily by luxury, banking and consumer stocks, while energy, defense and technology names lagged, in line with a wider global sell-off tied to renewed worries over the AI sector.
Among individual movers, HSBC rose 1.7%, SAP added 0.7%, Siemens climbed 1.2%, LVMH advanced 3.3%, Inditex gained 2.1% and Safran jumped 3.6%. On the downside, ASML Holding slipped 2.1%, while Shell and TotalEnergies declined 1.9% and 2.8%, respectively. Rheinmetall tumbled more than 16% after cutting its full-year guidance, and Deutsche Telekom fell 1.4% following the announcement of a €2 billion share buyback that disappointed market expectations.
