Europe midday: Shares hold gains on Wall St, eurozone PMIs

(Sharecast News) - European shares were higher at midday on Tuesday, boosted by fresh records on Wall Street overnight after chip giant Nvidia said it would invest up to $100bn in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and slight growth in eurozone business activity. The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was up 0.27% to 554.9 at 1145 BST. Germany's DAX rose 0.20% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.57%.

"The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched fresh record highs, but the rally remains strikingly narrow. Fewer than one in 10 stocks are hitting 12-month highs, underscoring a market increasingly dominated by its largest names," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Matt Britzman.

"This concentration reflects a broader disconnect as equity indices are soaring even as the real economy shows signs of strain, with sticky inflation, a cooling labour market, and uncertainty over the timing of rate cuts. For now, optimism around AI-driven growth and record levels of investment is keeping momentum alive, but the balancing act is precarious."

"Nvidia and OpenAI just dropped a bombshell on the AI landscape. This makes Nvidia's recent $5bn investment in Intel look like pocket change. For Nvidia, the prize is huge - every gigawatt of AI data centre capacity is worth about $50bn in revenue, meaning this project could be worth as much as $500bn.

On the economic front, business activity in the eurozone showed modest gains in September, led by the dominant services industry, but new orders stagnated as firms struggled to secure exports, according to flash estimates from a survey published on Tuesday.

The seasonally-adjusted HCOB eurozone composite PMI output index rose to 51.2 compared with 51 in the previous month - the ninth consecutive month above a reading of 50 which separates contraction from expansion.

Growth in business activity was due to the service sector posting the fastest rate of increase in 2025 so far, HCOB said. Manufacturing production also rose, but the rate of expansion eased from the near three-and-a-half year high registered in August and was only slight.

In equity news, Kingfisher shares surged after the DIY retailer lifted its full-year profit guidance, despite weaker consumer sentiment, following strong interim trading.

Orsted shares were also in demand after a US judge ruled the Danish renewable energy firm could resume construction of an offshore wind farm that was halted by the Trump administration.

Kingspan Group jumped after announcing plans for an IPO of 25% of its data-centre unit ADVNSYS, which could leave the Irish building materials clearing its debt.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com