EU50 near record highs: broad-based gains and buybacks support european equities 🔎

EU50 is posting a moderately positive session today, with the index gaining 0.4% intraday, while the overall market picture remains constructive. Currently, 71% of constituents are trading in positive territory, and 60% of stocks remain above both their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, suggesting that the rally is broadly distributed across the market. The index remains just 1.5% below its all-time high (ATH), with returns of +1.0% over the past 7 days, +3.4% over the past month, and +5.0% year-to-date.

Sectors: materials, financials, and industrials lead the market

Today's gains are being driven primarily by Materials, Financials, Communications, Technology, and Industrials. Materials are the strongest-performing sector, rising 0.8%, supported by strong performances from Saint-Gobain (+1.83%) and BASF (+1.28%). Within Financials, standout performers include UniCredit (+1.52%), BNP Paribas (+1.41%), and BBVA (+1.34%). However, the sector is not uniformly positive — Deutsche Bank (-2.29%) is currently the weakest component among the day's major movers. In Industrials, Airbus (+1.95%) and Safran (+1.38%) are performing well, while pressure on the index comes from names such as Bayer (-1.77%), Siemens Energy (-1.69%), and Anheuser-Busch InBev (-0.90%).

Buybacks provide additional fuel for european equities

Another source of support for the European market remains the theme of record share buybacks. According to Barclays, companies within the Stoxx 600 repurchased approximately EUR 18 billion worth of shares in April, close to cyclical highs and well above seasonal averages. Barclays also notes that nearly 80% of buyback programs announced for 2026 remain unexecuted, which could continue providing technical demand support for European equities in the coming months.

Announced Buyback Programs

• Siemens announced a EUR 6 billion share buyback program.
• Shell announced a USD 3 billion buyback program.
• Eni announced a EUR 1.5 billion buyback program.
• ING announced a EUR 1 billion buyback program.
• Deutsche Bank was highlighted by Barclays as one of the companies with a large amount of remaining buybacks relative to market capitalization to be executed before the end of August.
• Tenaris, Quilter, Bridgepoint, British American Tobacco, Serco, and Royal Unibrew were also identified as companies with relatively large outstanding buyback programs yet to be completed.

Today's EU50 picture remains positive, though more selective than euphoric. At the same time, the index valuation, with a trailing P/E ratio of 18.7x, remains relatively low compared with the valuation multiples of major US equity indices.