Eurostoxx 50: 2,848.53 (+45.98) Frankfurt DAX: 7,376.24 (+82.10) Paris CAC: 3,982.21 (+57.98):EUROPEAN STOCKS rose yesterday as Greek lawmakers approved a bill authorizing austerity measures, qualifying the country for further aid.
The Stoxx 600 rose 1.1 per cent to 272.86 at the close in London for the biggest two-day gain since December.
The gauge has lost 1.1 per cent this quarter, snapping three quarters of gains, on concern that Greece will fail to repay all its debt.
“The recent pullback provides a buying opportunity,” said Robert Buckland, chief global equity strategist at Citigroup in London.
“Despite a slowdown, we expect the economic and earnings recovery to be sustained.”
National benchmark indexes rose in every western European market.
Greek prime minister George Papandreou won a second ballot to execute measures ranging from tax increases to asset sales yesterday after he clinched victory on a Bill setting out his strategy to cut the deficit.
LSE jumped 11 per cent to 1,061p, the highest price in three years, after the London and Toronto exchanges said they would not proceed with their friendly C$3.29 billion ($3.4 billion) merger because they did not get the required two-thirds of votes cast by proxy before yesterday’s shareholder meeting.
BG soared 4.7 per cent to 1,414p after Britain’s third-largest oil and gas producer doubled its estimate of reserves and resources in the Santos Basin in Brazil.
Galp rallied 6.5 per cent to €16.45 in Lisbon, while Repsol jumped 3.2 per cent to €23.94 in Madrid.
Taylor Wimpey increased 3.4 per cent to 37.8p after Britain’s second-biggest home builder by volume said its British operation is headed for a double-digit earnings before interest and taxes margin in 2012.
K+S, Europe’s biggest potash producer, dropped 1.3 per cent to €53 and Yara International, the largest maker of nitrogen fertilizers, slid 4.2 per cent to 303.70 kroner as a US department of agriculture report showed that US grain acreage and inventories topped analysts’ estimates.
Renewable Energy dropped 3.2 per cent to 9.28 kroner after Deutsche Bank downgraded the maker of solar-energy products to “sell” from “hold”. – (Bloomberg)
