- Japan Democrats Take Power, Challenges Loom
- Merkel Loses Ground to Left in German States
- Fed's Profit from Crisis Loans Is $14 Billion: Report
- No Need for 2nd US Fiscal Stimulus Package: Survey
- Lehman Claims Could Reach $100 Billion: PwC
- China's Wealth Fund Muscles Up as Markets Recover
- Lloyds Offers to Sell Branches to Placate EC: Report
- Tribune May Exit Bankruptcy this Fall: Report
- For Investors, ‘Not So Bad’ Might Not Be Enough
- Fast Money Traders: John Paulson Replaces Warren Buffett As Most-Watched Investor
- 5 Hot Tech Picks For Your Portfolio: Analysts
- Market 360: The Week's Best & Worst
- Hirschhorn: Trader Talk with Todd Gordon, Pt. 2
- What Overthrowing FCC's Cable Ownership Cap Means for Cable and Media
- 6 Stock Picks for 'Times Like These'
- Your Emails, And "The Godfather" Is "Pointless Garbage"?
- "Twilight" Goes on Tour
- Wal-Mart Brings a New Way to Pay Bills the Old Way
MOST SHARED
- Aramex, Dubai Property and Bahrain Banking
- Burglars Use Facebook, Twitter to Find New Targets
- 1,000 Banks to Fail In Next Two Years: Bank CEO
- How I Made My Millions
- Explaining the NYSE Delay
- State fairs hiring, and seeing lots of applicants
- Double Upside Call: Dell
- A Reluctance to Spend May Be a Legacy of the Recession
- GM to Form China Venture with FAW
Text Size 
European shares closed at their highest level in nine months on Monday as better-than-expected July U.S. manufacturing data boosted markets.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares provisionally closed 1.4 percent higher at 942.02 points after touching 947.07, the highest level since early November.
The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 48.9 in July from 44.8 in June. The median forecast of 72 economists surveyed by Reuters was for a reading of 46.2.
"The ISM data was certainly higher than the consensus numbers and was at the top end of the range. It is a good number, actually the significance of the 50 level being the cut off between expansion and contraction is over played," said Jim Wood-Smith, head of research at Williams de Broe.
"Numbers in the high 40s are normally consistent with GDP growth. It is confirmation, that at least for the time being, we have seen the worst of the recession," he said.
Banking stocks added the most points to the index. HSBC [HSBA-LN
Loading...
()
] shares rose 5 percent after the results, which showed that first-half profit halved from a year ago to $5 billion as it was hit by rising bad debts.
Shares in Barclays [BARC-LN
Loading...
()
] , Britain's second biggest bank, climbed 6.7 percent after it posted an 8 percent rise in half-year profit, but bad debts almost doubled to offset buoyant earnings from its enlarged investment bank.
UBS jumped 2.5 percent on reports it may not have to pay a fine in settling a tax evasion dispute with the U.S. government.
Commodity stocks gained as crude rose 2.9 percent and copper rose 4.4 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index closed at 4,682.46 points, its highest closing level since early October 2008. Earlier in the session, it hit a fresh intraday peak above the 4,700, its highest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in October 2008.
Germany's DAX was 1.8 percent higher and France's CAC 40 was up 1.5 percent.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes