European Report: Euro poll relief boosts shares
EUROPEAN equities ended higher in thin trading yesterday, with Italian shares outperforming the regional market after voters endorsed Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party’s reforms in European elections.
Results from around the 28-nation bloc showed pro-European centre-left and centre-right parties will keep control of around 70 per cent of the 751-seat EU legislature, but the number of Eurosceptic members will more than double.
“People were afraid that Eurosceptic parties would emerge as big winners. In some countries they are big winners, but the outcome is not as bad as feared,” said Koen De Leus of KBC.
Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 3.6 per cent, while Germany’s Dax index ended 1.3 per cent higher at 9,892.82, and Spain’s Ibex rose 1.2 per cent. The Eurozone’s blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 gained 1.2 per cent.