Europe open: French stocks lead gains on LVMH results, political outlook
By Benjamin Chiou
Date: Wednesday 15 Oct 2025
(Sharecast News) - European equity markets were putting in solid gains on Wednesday morning despite falls in London, as French stocks soared on the back of strong gains in the heavyweight luxury sector.
An easing of political uncertainty in Paris helped sentiment, while better-than-expected results from LVMH gave markets an extra boost, with the benchmark CAC 40 jump 2.4%. That helped the Stoxx 600 to rise 0.8% to 569.01 by 0952 CEST.
News that re-appointed French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu is planning to put off a highly contentious pension reform until 2027 eased investor concerns on hopes that he will now have enough support to get an amended draft budget bill passed in parliament.
The controversial reforms, that would see the pension age rise from 62 to 64, are one of president Emmanuel Macron's main economic policies but had divided French politicians over recent years, and led to weeks of public protests in 2023. Lecornu is planning to suspend the reforms until after the 2027 presidential election.
In equity news, LVMH jumped 13% early on after reporting an unexpected 1% organic increase in sales for the third quarter, with improvements reported "across all business groups and all regions, with the exception of Europe", the company said.
French peer Christian Dior also rose 13,% while Hermes and Kering were both up 7%, with strong gains also registered by Burberry, Hermes, Swatch and Moncler.
Dutch chipmaker ASML was also in demand after reporting a doubling of orders for the third quarter to €5.40bn, up from €2.63bn the year before and ahead of analysts' forecasts.
Meanwhile, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.1% lower as defence giants Babcock and BAE extended losses following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Weakness in the pharma and tobacco sectors also dampened the index.
In economic data, inflation statistics from Spain showed that the consumer price index rose at a year-on-year rate of 3.0% in September - tied for its second-highest reading in 15 months. That was up from 2.7% in August and higher than the flash estimate of 2.9% released two weeks ago.
Still to come is eurozone industrial production data for August, which is expected to show a 1.6% decline after growing 0.3% in July.
In commodity markets, gold prices rose to a fresh peak of $4,200 an ounce on the back of ongoing safe-haven demand and increased expectations of further interest-rate cuts in the US, following comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell the previous evening.
Meanwhile, oil prices were extending losses, with Brent crude down 0.2% at $62.31 a barrel - its lowest level since May - amid oversupply concerns and rising trade tensions between the US and China.
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