European shares soar

European shares rose on Friday, supported by stronger-than-expected US jobs data which reaffirmed confidence in the strength of the world's biggest economy and opened the door to market gains next week. US employment grew solidly for a third straight month, with 227,000 jobs added in February - around 10 percent more than expected.
Data from the United States, and emerging markets, has become a key driver for European companies as lacklustre domestic growth - underscored on Friday with weaker-than-expected industrial output from France, Italy and Britain - leaves them looking abroad for higher profits. "We've had some buyers come in, probably wanting to cover their shorts into the weekend on what is a reasonably good (US) number," said Andy Ash, head of sales at Monument Securities, adding the gains in European equities could continue into the first half of next week.
"On the Euro STOXX 50 we could probably get ... a couple of percent up from where we are now." The index of top 50 eurozone blue chips rose 0.5 percent on Friday to 2,489.19 points, edging back up towards half-year peaks around 2,557.86 scaled in late February.
Philippe Delabarre, analyst at Trading Central, said the technical outlook for the index was bullish, with 2,540 the next key target to the upside. He recommended 2,480 as a stop-loss level for any long bets on the index. A successful bond swap by Greece, which is striving to meet the terms of its international bailout and avoid a chaotic default, also supported sentiment on Friday, although most of the good news had been priced in when it became clear enough private creditors would agree to it.
The Euro STOXX volatility index, a crude gauge of investor risk aversion, fell to one-week lows, but remained twice as high as historic troughs set in 2005, before the global financial crisis. With the Euro STOXX 50 up 11 percent in two-and-a-half months, European growth lacklustre and a chaotic Greek default - though averted for now - still possible, the market could struggle to rally much beyond recent peaks in the near term.
"The US is a positive but we are not so sure that it is going to continue to surprise positively," Joakim Skoglund, equity strategist at Handelsbanken Capital Markets, said. The next potential event risk comes from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), which is due to rule late on Friday whether the Greek bond swap is a "credit event" and thus triggers a payout on CDS contracts. The broad FTSE Eurofirst 300 index, which spans beyond the euro zone, closed up 0.4 percent at 1,079.37. In a sign of ongoing concerns, Greek stocks underperformed, falling 2.2 percent.