(Paris) World stock markets rebounded on Tuesday following their plunge caused by fears of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the situation seeming to calm down with the start of the withdrawal of part of the Russian forces which had been deployed.
Posted at 6:35 a.m.
In the first exchanges, Europe was clearly in the green, Paris gaining 1.21%, London taking 0.75%, Frankfurt 1.43% and Milan 0.97%, shortly after 4:30 a.m., filling part of the yesterday’s losses.
On the side of Asia, whose end of the session took place before the first Russian movements, the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended in decline. The flagship Nikkei index fell 0.79%, its lowest closing level since Jan. 28. Hong Kong closed at -0.82%.
“There is something of a lull in the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, with both sides appearing to want to continue their diplomatic efforts to avoid military action. This could help turn the tide for some of yesterday’s aggressive selling in European markets,” said Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
On Tuesday, a first sign of a retreat from Moscow was recorded: Russian forces deployed for weeks near the Ukrainian border thus began to return to their garrisons, the Ministry of Defense announced.
Russia had massed since December more than 100,000 soldiers on the borders of Ukraine, raising fears in Kiev of an imminent invasion of this country.
In the process, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba welcomed the fact that Ukraine and the West have “together […] succeeded in preventing any further escalation on the part of Russia”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in Moscow on Tuesday to try to find a diplomatic solution. The day before, from Kiev, he had urged Russia to seize the “offers of dialogue” and warned that in the event of an attack, “we will take far-reaching measures which will have significant repercussions on the possibilities of economic development of Russia “.
The prospect of a rate hike by the U.S. central bank (Fed) also weighed on investors, with one Fed official repeating his remarks that rates needed to be hiked one percentage point before early July, a round tighter than envisaged so far in order to combat inflation.
On the agenda for Tuesday are expected the PPI index of wholesale prices in the United States, as well as the manufacturing activity index of the New York region.
Rebound in banking and transport
After their plunge on Monday, banking stocks rebounded, BNP Paribas taking 2.93% to 63.55 euros, Societe Generale, particularly present in Russia, amounting to 2.91% to 34.78 euros.
Same trend on the air and automotive side, with Lufthansa (+1.01% to 7.37 euros), Renault (+3.42% to 35.56 euros), BMW (+1.29% to 93.78 euros), Volkswagen (+ 1.46% to 185.38 euros).
Miners are recovering
The biggest drop in the Parisian CAC 40 on Monday, the world’s second largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal climbed 3.40% on Tuesday, to 27.24 euros.
Glencore, the Swiss-based commodities trading giant, climbed 2.75% to 433.70 pence in London, after announcing a net profit of nearly $5 billion (4.3 billion euros) in 2021, driven by the rebound in commodity prices.
On the side of oil, the euro and bitcoin
Oil prices fell again, the price of a barrel of Brent lost 2.44%, to 94.13 dollars, while the price of a barrel of American WTI fell 2.67%, to 92.95 dollars towards 4 h 15.
The euro rose 0.31% against the dollar, to 1.1342 dollars.
Bitcoin gained 4.03% to $43,950.