LONDON: European shares opened sharply higher and the euro briefly vaulted to five-month peaks on Monday after the market’s favoured candidate won the first round of the French election, reducing the risk of another Brexit-like shock.
The victory for pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron, who is now expected to beat right-wing rival Marine Le Pen in a deciding vote next month, sent the pan-European STOXX 50 index up 3 per cent, France’s CAC40 almost 4 per cent and bank stocks more than 6 per cent.
Traders top-sliced some of the euro’s overnight gains, but it was still up more than 1 per cent on the dollar, more than 2 per cent against the yen and 1.3 per cent on the pound as the early flurry of deals subsided.
“It (the first round result) has come out in line with the market’s expectations so you have something of a risk rally as there was a bit of a risk-premium built into all markets,” said James Binny, head of currency at State Street Global Advisors.
There was also an unwinding of safe-haven trades.
Shorter-term German bonds saw their biggest sell-off since the end of 2015 as investors piled back into French as well as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek debt.
The Japanese yen’s fall was widespread, the market’s so-called fear-guage, the VIX volatility index, plunged the most since November and gold saw its biggest tumble in more than a month.
E-mini futures for Wall Street’s S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent in early trade, while yields on 10-year US Treasury notes rose almost 8 basis points to 2.31 per cent.
Asia also saw a risk rally.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1.5 per cent as the yen retreated, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.3 per cent.
Shanghai shares fell 1.7 per cent after state media signalled Beijing would tolerate more market volatility as regulators clamp down on riskier financing.
But Emmanuel Macron’s success set the tone.
The euro jumped in relief, and was last up 1.1 per cent at $1.0840, having been as far as $1.0940, the highest since early November.
The safe-haven yen slipped across the board with the euro surging as much 2.4 per cent to 119.77 yen while the US dollar gained 1 per cent to 110.20 yen.
“The rise of the euro and risk appetite rebounding is understandable and this should also see yields in Europe fall, spreads to Bunds tighten and stocks rally,” said Tim Riddell, an analyst at Westpac.
“However, such gains are likely to be contained when markets reflect upon the marked shift away from the ‘establishment’ and just how effective the new president may be,” he added.
Wall Street on Friday had only a modest lift from news President Donald Trump would announce the broad outline of his proposed tax package on Wednesday.
“Markets are sceptical that the real details will be forthcoming,” said analysts at ANZ in a note.
“There is also plenty of conjecture about whether any tax cuts will be able to be revenue neutral, and that could affect their ease of passage through Congress.”
The Dow ended Friday down a minor 0.15 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.30 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 0.11 per cent.
Investors were also keeping a wary eye on tensions in the Korean peninsula.
North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a US aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, in the latest sign of rising tension as Trump called the leaders of China and Japan to discuss the situation — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
