LONDON: Europe's main stock markets advanced at the start of trading on Monday, with investors reassured by Italian austerity measures at the start of a critical week for the euro.
London's FTSE 100 index climbed 0.56 percent at 5,583.57 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.93 percent to 6,137.87 points and in Paris the CAC 40 added 1.32 percent to stand at 3,206.67.
The Milan stock exchange jumped 2.02 percent as the Italian government prepared to announce a draconian austerity package of cuts, taxes and pension reforms before parliament.
Later on Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris to thrash out details of a plan to save the European single currency.
The two leaders are to meet for a working lunch, having vowed to propose European Union treaty changes to create what Merkel has dubbed a "European fiscal union with strict rules" and Sarkozy calls "true economic government."
Whatever proposals emerge from the talks must be seen as a credible guarantee that eurozone governments will at last bring their deficits under control and thereby satisfy restive markets.
After Monday's Franco-German summit, EU leaders will have three days to digest proposals before the EU summit begins in Brussels and the board of the European Central Bank meets in Frankfurt.
"The start of a key week for Europe begins today with Sarkozy and Merkel meeting in Paris for talks on how the idea of a fiscal union might work in principle," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
He added: "Talk of fiscal union is one thing, being able to deliver even a framework for it is another."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.