European shares gain as wind energy stocks rise, tech rebounds

By Shashwat Chauhan and Amir Orusov

Sept 23 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Tuesday, led by wind energy stocks after a favourable U.S. court ruling for Denmark's Orsted, while technology shares recovered from early losses.

The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX was up 0.5% at 556.3 points by 0848 GMT, with most regional bourses also moving higher. French stocks .FCHI were in the lead with a 1% rise.

Shares of Orsted ORSTED.CO jumped 7% after a U.S. federal judge ruled that the Danish offshore wind developer can restart work on the nearly finished project off the coast of Rhode Island.

"We take it as a favourable development," said Laura Cooper, global investment strategist at Nuveen, who has a favourable outlook on the clean energy sector.

Wind turbine maker Vestas VWS.CO and German peer Nordex NDXG.DE also gained about 3% each.

Retailers .SXRP climbed 2%, boosted by a 17.1% surge in home improvement retailer Kingfisher KGF.L after it raised its full year profit outlook.

Ireland's Kingspan Group KSP.I jumped 10.2% after announcing plans for an IPO of 25% of its data-centre unit ADVNSYS, which could leave the building materials maker debt-free.

ASM International ASMI.AS fell 1.9% after the chip equipment maker cut its revenue target for the second half of 2025.

The broader technology index .SX8P rose 0.6%, reversing early losses after Wall Street tech shares gained overnight as Nvidia said it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips.

European stocks, which outperformed U.S. peers in early 2025 on defence-related gains, have since lagged as AI optimism lifted America's tech giants.

The S&P 500 .SPX is up close to 14% so far this year, compared to the STOXX 600's about 9.5% gain.

Healthcare .SXDP was down 0.5%, with shares of drugmaker Roche ROG.S and Novartis NOVN.S down about 1% each.

A survey showed euro zone business activity grew at its fastest pace in 16 months and separate reading showed activity in Germany grew at an accelerated pace.

French economic activity meanwhile contracted for the same period, while British firms reported a loss of momentum and confidence.

Sweden's central bank cut its policy rate to 1.75% from 2% and said rates were expected to remain on hold for some time. Swedish stocks .OMXSPI were last up 0.9%.

Later in the day, commentary from Federal Reserve officials would be on the radar, including from Chair Jerome Powell to assess the U.S. central bank's rate trajectory after it cut interest rates last week.