European Stocks Rise to 2-Month High
European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, recovering from a slight decline in the previous session and hitting a two-month high, amid continued support from the prospect of increased government spending in Europe.
The euro zone STOXX 50 closed 0.4% higher at 5,450 and the STOXX 600 gained 0.7% to 554, supported by a strong session for pharmaceutical heavyweights. Consumer discretionary stocks pared some of the previous session’s steep losses, with LVM, BMW and Kering rising between 4% and 1.5%. Banks were also mostly higher, led by BBVA, UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo up more than 1%.
Outside the currency bloc, Novo Nordisk jumped 4% on news that its CEO would step down. Vodafone, in turn, jumped 5.7% after the company announced a €2 billion share buyback program. In contrast, Swiss Life fell 0.4%, despite reporting higher fee income and increased premiums for the first quarter. (alg)
Source: Trading Economics