European shares recovered in late session to end slightly higher on Thursday as upbeat US macroeconomic figures and news that Greece had moved closer to securing an international bailout prompted investors to return back to equities. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 0.1 percent higher at 1,076.90 points after falling to 1,064.64 earlier in the day.
Media shares, up about 1 percent, were the biggest gainers, helped by a 2.9 percent rise in Reed Elsevier which reported a rise in full-year profit. The FTSEurofirst index spent most of the session in negative territory as Greece faced hurdles in its efforts to secure a bailout. However, government sources later said the country and its international lenders had agreed on how to achieve budget cuts.
One euro zone official said after the close of the European stock market that the euro zone was putting the finishing touches to a second bailout for Greece, for finance ministers' approval on Monday. Sources also said euro zone central banks had agreed on a Greek bond swap. "It's a long, hard struggle, but the general view is that eventually there will be some solution because a Greek default is not in the interest of the euro zone members such as Germany," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.
Mouloud Kadem, derivatives trader at Carax, said investors with a longer-term view could buy DAX or Euro STOXX 50 futures as German industry was doing very well and the banking sector was well supported by governments. Philippe Delabarre, technical analyst at Trading Central, was bullish on the Euro STOXX 50, which recovered from lows to trade 0.2 percent lower at 2,489.35 points.
Spain's benchmark index fell 2.1 percent, BBVA was down 4.1 percent and Banco Popular fell 6.2 percent. Among individual stocks, Capgemini, Europe's largest computer consultancy, rose nearly 8 percent after saying it expected sales and margins to rise this year.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.