Eurostoxx 50:2,870.19 (–5.48) Frankfurt DAX:7,442.96 (+23.52) Paris CAC:4,003.11 (–4.24)
EUROPEAN STOCKS climbed for a sixth day yesterday, as finance ministers approved an aid payment to Greece.
LSE climbed 2.5 per cent to 1,059p after the Financial Timessaid the UK bourse was open to considering a merger with Nasdaq OMX.
RWE rose 0.8 per cent to €39.14 after the German utility was said to be considering a sale of its Npower unit.
Banks limited gains as Standard and Poor’s said plans for lenders to roll over Greek debt may lead to a “selective default”.
The Stoxx 600 increased 0.2 per cent at the close in London as more than two stocks gained for each that fell.
“We think the pricing of risk within the European stock market is at odds with current fundamentals,” Ian Scott, a global equity strategist at Nomura Holdings in London, wrote in a report.
“With the reduction in sovereign risks following the pivotal votes recently in Greece and the deal under discussion to roll over Greek bank debt, embedded risk premiums ought to come down,” he said.
The euro area approved its share of a €12 billion aid payment for Greece on July 2nd and pledged to complete work in the coming weeks on a second rescue package.
Finance ministers agreed to disburse €8.7 billion of loans under last year’s €110 billion bailout.
Dragon Oil surged 8.4 per cent to 550.5p.
Société Générale led banks lower as a gauge of lenders declined for the first time in five days. Société Générale lost 1.3 per cent to €41.87, Italy’s UniCredit slipped 1.4 per cent to €1.52 and Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Argentaria retreated 0.9 per cent to €8.27.
Shares of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena advanced 5.1 per cent to €58, after analysts at Société Générale upgraded the Italian lender to “buy” from “hold”.
Unione di Banche Italiane, Italy’s fourth-biggest bank, rose 4.8 per cent to €4.18 as Matteo Ramenghi, a Milan-based analyst at UBS, said it remains a quality name in Italian retail banking.
Fraport climbed 2.5 per cent to €57.34 after BofA Merrill Lynch raised the airport-services company to “buy” from “underperform”. – (Bloomberg)
