Among the big winners on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, mining group Boliden stood out, up 7.2 percent. Heavy engineering stocks such as Atlas Copco and Sandvik rose by 5.9 and 5.8 percent, respectively.
“Great progress”
Construction group Skanska rose 4.1 percent after several large orders in the US. But the rise was broad-based, with 29 of 30 OMXS30 shares in the green. Only Nibe went against the grain and lost 1 percent.
Stock market sentiment lifted after President Donald Trump paused an attempt to pilot ships through the Strait of Hormuz under military protection - to and from the oil-rich countries around the Persian Gulf - and said that “great progress” had been made on the road to a peace deal with Iran.
The news site Axios subsequently reported, citing sources, on a 14-point protocol from the United States with the aim of speeding up peace talks and gradually opening up the blocked Strait of Hormuz - which is normally used by around 20 percent of the world's oil and gas ships.
Negotiations on terms for Iran's nuclear program will, according to the proposal, be addressed at a later stage, a source told Bloomberg.
Oil prices fall
The price of oil has fallen sharply in the wake of the developments, with a barrel of North Sea oil trading at about $101 at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, compared with peaks of over $115 per barrel on Monday.
Price levels can be compared to an oil price of around $70 per barrel before the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28.
The dollar and market interest rates were also pushed down.
On Tuesday, the OMXS index rose 1.1 percent. Since the beginning of the year, the index has been up 5 percent.
