European shares stay elevated after ECB rate cut
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Nordea carries banks up 1%
Sartorius tops STOXX 600 after Q3 results
STOXX 600 up 0.7%
Updated at 1222 GMT
By Ankika Biswas and Paolo Laudani
Oct 17 (Reuters) -European stocks held on to their gains on Thursday, after the European Central Bank delivered a widely expected 25-basis-point rate cut, even though it refrained from offering new clues about its next move.
The continent-wide STOXX 600 index .STOXX was up 0.7% at 1225 GMT, following a two-day decline.
The ECB reduced its interest rates by 25 bps, following a similar-sized cut in September, which marked its first back-to-back rate cuts in 13 years.
However, the central bank did not provide any indication about future moves in its statement and instead repeated its mantra that decisions will be data-dependent.
This came in the face of money markets' expectations of three further reductions through March 2025. Inflation in the euro zone is now increasingly under control and the economic outlook has worsened.
"The outlook is pretty clear as well... With the growth so slow in Europe and inflation back to target, it would be a surprise if they didn't continue to cut," Robert Farago, head of head of strategic asset allocation at Hargreaves Landsdown said.
Investor sentiment was already upbeat on the back of a slew of robust corporate earnings ahead of the monetary policy verdict.
Finnish bank Nordea NDAFI.HE rose 6%, supporting a more than 1% rise in the bank index .SX7E, after raising its forecast and announcing a new share buyback programme.
Germany's Sartorius SATG_p.DE rose 16%, topping the STOXX 600, after the pharmaceutical equipment supplier's better-than-expected bio-processing order intake boosted its nine-month results.
British pest control company Rentokil Initial RTO.L rose 9% on plans to expand initiatives to increase organic growth in North America following higher group revenue growth.
On the flip side, Mondi MNDI.L dropped 6.5% after the British packaging company reported a lower third-quarter core profit, while Nokia NOKIA.HE fell 4.2% after its quarterly sales missed estimates.
European banks' performance since rate hike cycle began https://reut.rs/3Y7zAzC
Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala
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