European Shares End Higher After Draghi Speech
European shares closed higher across the board Tuesday after ECB President Mario Draghi defended the central bank's bond-buying program after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and following upbeat U.S. economic reports.
Merkel and Draghi met to discuss the ongoing euro zone debt crisis. Earlier in the day Merkel said euro zone members needed to push ahead with painful reforms if they wish to come out of the crisis stronger.
The FTSEurofirst 300 closed up 4.06 points, or 0.4 percent, at 1,119.82.
Meanwhile, speculation continued over Spain’s forthcoming bank audits due Friday, and whether they will reveal that, requested or not, Spain will be forced to accept a full bailout.
Spain auctioned 3 and 6-month bonds on Tuesday morning. Average yields were slightly higher compared with the previous auction.
"Growth is the final piece of the jigsaw to enable equities to push on," Guy Foster, head of portfolio strategy at Brewin Dolphin, said. "Expectations are modest for third-quarter earnings, so just a bit of certainty would enable us to enjoy another phase of progress in to the year end," he said.
Shares in Indonesian coal miner Bumi clawed back early losses it made on Tuesday. The company announced on Monday it was investigating alleged irregularities at one of its coal mining divisions.
Glencore, which is locked in a battle for control of miner Xstrata , announced before the market opened that it had revised down its plan to boost its majority stake in Kazakh zinc producer Kazzinc.
Standard Chartered saw its shares move down after the FT reported that Singapore investment fund Temasek was considering offloading its 18 percent stake in the bank.
Shares in French bank Credit Agricole fell on Tuesday after the FT reported the bank has agreed to provide an additional 600 million euros in fresh capital to shore up one of its Greek subsidiaries.
Stocks in U.K. media company Daily Mail and General Trust were up after the company reported a revenue boost from the London Olympics.
One of the biggest losers on the European indexes on Tuesday was Continental. Reuters reported that the German automotive parts supplier Schaeffler is selling its shares in the firm.
