Europes main index hovered near prepandemic highs on Wednesday, as a rise in shares of Adidas after an upbeat sales forecast and gains in telecoms stocks outweighed losses in mining and travel sectors.

The panEuropean STOXX 600 index edged 0.2 higher after a rally in technology stocks on Tuesday pushed the benchmark to its highest level since February 2020.

Miners, retailers, and travel and leisure companies led the declines in Europe, while telecoms jumped 1.0.

German sportswear maker Adidas AG jumped 3.4 after it forecast a strong rebound in sales in 2021, particularly in China, the rest of Asia and Latin America following fourthquarter results.

European markets recorded a strong start to March, with the German DAX hitting an alltime high as investors snapped up socalled cyclical stocks like banks and oil firms on hopes of a strong economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis.

However, trading has been volatile in recent weeks as government bond yields rose on concerns that central banks could begin tightening monetary policy as global economy recovers, raising borrowing costs.

For the time being, these big intraday and daybyday moves are probably to be expected until we see what inflation does genuinely look like after the recovery takes hold, said Edward Park, chief investment officer at Brooks Macdonald.

Feeding into worries about fast price rises, data showed Chinas factory gate prices rose at the fastest pace since November 2018 in February.

The question…