Stock Market

 European shares were little changed on Thursday as investors refrained from making large bets ahead of crucial global economic data and French elections later in the week, while H&M (ST:HMb) slid after missing quarterly profit estimates.

Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose just under 1% early in the session, adding to Tuesday’s 7% gain, rebounding from three straight days of steep losses. However, it remains over 150% higher so far this year on rampant demand for all things AI.

Chipmaking stocks such as Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), U.S. shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) and Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) tumbled on Monday, but Nvidia bore a brunt of the selling, falling 6.7% and tumbling for a third straight session after it briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street last week. 

European equities advanced on Monday, led by gains in automobile and financial stocks, while investor attention focused on the first round of French parliamentary elections later this week.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 7.69% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.21 at the close. Meanwhile, Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) added 5.83% or 0.03 points to end at 0.55 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC) was up 5.47% or 0.07 points to 1.35 in…

The best performers of the session on the OMX Stockholm 30 were H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB B (ST:HMb), which rose 2.42% or 4.50 points to trade at 188.60 at the close. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca PLC (ST:AZN) added 1.30% or 21.50 points to end at 1,675.50 and Svenska Handelsbanken AB A (ST:SHBa) was up 1.12% or 1.11 points to 100.25…

The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Halma PLC (LON:HLMA), which rose 13.36% or 314.00 points to trade at 2,664.00 at the close. Meanwhile, BT Group PLC (LON:BT) added 4.33% or 5.60 points to end at 135.00 and Severn Trent PLC (LON:SVT) was up 4.18% or 101.00 points to 2,520.00 in late trade.

The best performers of the session on the OMX Stockholm 30 were Sinch AB (ST:SINCH), which rose 4.39% or 1.00 points to trade at 23.78 at the close. Meanwhile, Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB (ST:SBBb) added 3.87% or 0.21 points to end at 5.71 and Hexagon AB ser. B (ST:HEXAb) was up 3.47% or 4.10 points to 120.60…

The best performers of the session on the Tadawul All Share were Miahona Holding SCJSC (TADAWUL:2084), which rose 10.00% or 1.88 points to trade at 20.68 at the close. Meanwhile, Fawaz Abdulaziz AlHokair Company (TADAWUL:4240) added 9.35% or 0.76 points to end at 8.89 and Saudi Chemical Company (TADAWUL:2230) was up 8.63% or 0.88 points to 11.08 in late…

Analysts analyzed performance over the past eight election cycles (since 1992) and found that bank stocks rose in six out of eight instances leading up to the elections (starting from the end of May), averaging a gain of 2.9% and outperforming the S&P 500 by 2.6 percentage points.