European Software Stocks Stage Cautious Recovery

By Joe Stonor

Shares in European software companies were among the sharpest risers in the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index Friday, as traders looked for a bottom to selling sparked by fears over artificial-intelligence.

RELX, Experian and Capgemini all gained in afternoon European trade. London-listed RELX led the pack, climbing 7% to trade at 21.86 pounds.

The companies were among the first stocks hit by a global software selloff earlier this month sparked by concerns that AI agents would eat into software companies' markets.

Traders judging the selling as overly-severe stepped in to push a basket of European software stocks up 1.5%. However, the stocks still have a long way to go to recover to their pre-selloff levels.

RELX, for example, trades over 15% below its Feb. 2 close, the day before markets jumped on a new AI plug-in from Anthropic that promised to help legal teams automate some of their work. Data provider RELX provides a range of AI tools for the legal sector.

However, the company's unique access to troves of data make it resilient to challengers, Deutsch Bank analyst Steve Liechti said.

Others argued AI disruption is not as certain as markets seem to suggest.

"We think markets are pricing near-certain probability of AI disruption, which seems overstated," analysts at Bank of America wrote.

Data-vendor peer Experian was up 5.6%, as Morgan Stanley analysts called the stock's fall overdone.

Meanwhile, Capgemini--which last traded over 22% lower than its Feb. 2 level--received a share price boost after announcing a lift in AI-driven demand in the last quarter. Shares in the French software company gained 4.8%.

Write to Joe Stonor at josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 13, 2026 08:52 ET (13:52 GMT)