European stocks higher ahead of ECB move; DAX up 0.78%
Investing.com
Published Dec 21, 2011 04:35AM ET
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 climbed 0.76%, France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.67%, while Germany’s DAX 30 added 0.78%.
The ECB was to offer banks unlimited amounts of low-cost, three-year funds, which many analysts hoped will encourage buying of high-yielding Spanish and Italian bonds, helping ease concerns over the debt crisis in the euro zone.
Ahead of the operation, Italian and Spanish government 10-year bond yields fell to 6.64% and 5.12% respectively, moving further away from the levels above 7% that were widely seen as unsustainable.
Financial stocks led gains as shares in French lender BNP Paribas surged 2.49% and Credit Agricole jumped 2.31%, while Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank climbed 1.99% and 1.66%.
Peripheral lenders were also sharply higher with Italian Intesa Sanpaolo soaring 2.25% and Unicredit advancing 1.35%, while Spain’s BBVA and Banco Santander rose 0.77% and 0.89% respectively.
The insurance sector contributed to gains as shares in French group Axa jumped 1.77% and Spanish Allianz gained 2.35%.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom climbed 1.30%, erasing the previous day’s losses following AT&T’s decision to end its deal to buy Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile U.S. after opposition from the U.S. government.
In London, FTSE 100 added 0.46%, as U.K. lenders tracked their European counterparts sharply higher, shrugging off data showing that consumer confidence in the U.K. declined unexpectedly in December.
Shares in Barclays surged 3.47% and Lloyds Banking jumped 3.39%, while the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC Holdings climbed 3% and 0.49% respectively.
Elsewhere, mining giants Rio Tinto and Bhp Billiton soared 1% and 1.31%, while copper producers Xstrata and Kazakhmys jumped 0.64% and 1.04%.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a rise of 0.47%, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.42% increase, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.63% gain.
Later in the day, the euro zone was to produce data on Belgium’s business climate.
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