European stock markets open with positive indices this Monday, February 20

The main European stock markets opened this Monday, February 20, with timid rises on a day in which they will not have the reference of Wall Street which is closed for Presidents Day.

Investors remain focused on the outlook for interest rates, which according to analysts it is important that they continue to moderate; forecasts point to a drop from 5% to 4.9%.

For now, the US economy remains solid, consumption remains high, confidence as well, and retail and producer prices are a bit worrying.

At the European level, data such as the Swedish CPI and Eurozone consumer confidence are expected. Companies like Almirall, Icade and Temenos will present results.

On the Asian side, the People’s Bank of China maintains the reference rate for loans, the LPR for its acronym in English, at 3.65% and the LPR for five years or more, at 4.3%.

The measure is in line with what was expected by analysts who do foresee that it could lower them after the month of March when the government is expected to announce growth targets for this year, experts say.

The DAX rose 0.19%, above 15,513.05 points, the FTSE -100 rose 0.12%, the CAC-40 settled above 7,359.05 points, after scoring just over 0.15%, while the Eurostoxx 50 had a positive variation of 0.1%. The FTSE MIB rose 0.2% to 27,828 points in the first few minutes of trading. The IBEX 35 rose 0.27% to 9,358.40 points.

The main Asian stock markets, for their part, opened in negative territory. The KOSPI, opened on Monday with slight decreases of 0.29%, up to 2,444.19 points; Hang Seng (Hong Kong) also began with slight decreases of 0.51%, up to 20,614.85 points. The Nikkei 225, for its part, opened with falls of 0.21%, to 27,454.79 points.