<p>European defence stocks jumped on Wednesday, giving a fresh boost to this year's rally, after US President Donald Trump, in a sudden and surprising rhetorical shift, said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia.</p><p>Kyiv should act now with Moscow facing "big" economic problems, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, shortly after meeting Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. An index of aerospace and defence companies was up 1.1% at 0803 GMT, hovering near its record highs and outperforming region-wide STOXX 600, which was down 0.4%. The defence index has risen more than 200% since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in February 2022.</p><p>Defence stocks have been a large force behind the 9% rise in the STOXX 600 this year, hitting successive record highs on the back of the prospect of a swell of government spending on regional security.</p>.NATO pushes for common standards to tackle shortfalls in artillery munitions as Ukraine drains stock.<p>NATO countries pledged in June to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence and 1.5% on broader defence-related measures, a jump worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year from the current goal of 2% of GDP.</p><p>"US President Trump's about-face on Ukraine policy is bringing defence stocks into play today," Jochen Stanzl, analyst at broker CMC Markets, said.</p><p>Tom Guinchard from Pareto Securities also pointed to recent news of Norwegian and Danish airports shutdowns because of drone threats.</p><p>Still, there was no sign that latest Trump's comments would be matched by a change in US policy, such as a decision to impose the heavy new sanctions on Moscow sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who travelled to New York this week.</p><p>Europe's biggest defence company by market capitalisation BAE Systems was up 1.4%. Rheinmetall, Europe's biggest ammunition maker, rose around 2%. Sweden's Saab was up around 5% to its highest since mid-July, also buoyed by a local media report that Germany was open to buying its surveillance aircraft Global Eye.</p><p>Spanish defence and technology firm Indra rose around 3%. Hensoldt, which provides sensor systems for the Eurofighter, was up 4.6%, while Renk and Italy's Leonardo both rose around 3%. France's Thales and Dassault Aviation were up between 1.6% and 1.9% each.</p>
<p>European defence stocks jumped on Wednesday, giving a fresh boost to this year's rally, after US President Donald Trump, in a sudden and surprising rhetorical shift, said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia.</p><p>Kyiv should act now with Moscow facing "big" economic problems, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, shortly after meeting Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. An index of aerospace and defence companies was up 1.1% at 0803 GMT, hovering near its record highs and outperforming region-wide STOXX 600, which was down 0.4%. The defence index has risen more than 200% since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in February 2022.</p><p>Defence stocks have been a large force behind the 9% rise in the STOXX 600 this year, hitting successive record highs on the back of the prospect of a swell of government spending on regional security.</p>.NATO pushes for common standards to tackle shortfalls in artillery munitions as Ukraine drains stock.<p>NATO countries pledged in June to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence and 1.5% on broader defence-related measures, a jump worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year from the current goal of 2% of GDP.</p><p>"US President Trump's about-face on Ukraine policy is bringing defence stocks into play today," Jochen Stanzl, analyst at broker CMC Markets, said.</p><p>Tom Guinchard from Pareto Securities also pointed to recent news of Norwegian and Danish airports shutdowns because of drone threats.</p><p>Still, there was no sign that latest Trump's comments would be matched by a change in US policy, such as a decision to impose the heavy new sanctions on Moscow sought by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who travelled to New York this week.</p><p>Europe's biggest defence company by market capitalisation BAE Systems was up 1.4%. Rheinmetall, Europe's biggest ammunition maker, rose around 2%. Sweden's Saab was up around 5% to its highest since mid-July, also buoyed by a local media report that Germany was open to buying its surveillance aircraft Global Eye.</p><p>Spanish defence and technology firm Indra rose around 3%. Hensoldt, which provides sensor systems for the Eurofighter, was up 4.6%, while Renk and Italy's Leonardo both rose around 3%. France's Thales and Dassault Aviation were up between 1.6% and 1.9% each.</p>