Stock markets in Europe had a mixed style of trading on Thursday having strong returns from oil and gas big player, Shell, which aided the FTSE100 performance before the monetary policy meetings to be held differently by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.

By 08:50(GMT), the German DAX was trading at 0.4% than the previous day, the French CAC also dipped by 0.1% while the FTSE100 in the UK gained by 0.1%.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank meetings are the high points of today and tomorrow respectively, but before their resolutions come up, earning seasons have continued to flow.

Energy Leading the Way

The stock of the oil and gas heavy-weight, Shell, went up by 0.7% after the company disclosed an $8.5 billion shares’ buyback plan and then lifted its dividend to shareholders, shored up by the earnings of the fourth quarter that conveniently surpassed expectations as a result of the increasing cost of energy.

Likewise, stock values for Compass increased more than 7% following the catering giant’s announcement saying its revenues on a quarter are beginning to get back to its pre-pandemic positions, aided by its new ventures and its excellent customer retention strategy.

Publicis, the third-largest advertising company in the world, had its stock increased by 2.3% when it published its 2021 earnings earlier than expected. The company predicts a 4-5% increase in organic sales for itself this year.

On the other side, International Netherlands Group (ING) got its stock sliding by 4.2% and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) also had its stock price fall off by 3% as the two banks increased their net profit in the fourth quarter, however, lower than shareholders had expected following higher figures emerging from some of their counterparts in the European Union.

Latin American Concern

Copper miner, Antofagasta, slid to an unprecedented 52-week low as its pressure continued to mount. Antofagasta’s shares went down by 0.2%, being a victim of worries as investors are not clear on the policies of Chile’s new government about the mining sector of the country.

Many expect the European Central Bank to maintain the current monetary policies, but there are also demands for the bank to take necessary actions as published data on Wednesday revealed the Eurozone inflation to have risen to 5.1% in the last month, the biggest rate the region has seen so far as there were earlier expectations to have brought it down to 4.4%.