Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Investors Hub
European stocks rebounded from sharp losses seen last week as tensions on the Korean peninsula eased slightly after days of verbal sparing between the United States and North Korea.
Senior U.S. national security officials said Sunday that the nation is not on the brink of nuclear war with North Korea, but the danger is much greater than it was a decade ago.
Also, Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged both sides to avoid words and action that could worsen the situation. That followed fresh threats against North Korea on Friday, when Trump said the U.S military solutions were “locked and loaded”.
Investors, meanwhile, shrugged off Eurostat data which showed that Eurozone industrial production declined for the first time in four months in June.
Output decreased 0.6 percent month-on-month in June, reversing a revised 1.2 percent rise in May. This was the first decrease since February, when output slid 0.2 percent. Economists had forecast output to fall 0.5 percent.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 0.9 percent at 375.33 in late opening deals after falling 1 percent to hit a five-month low on Friday.
The German DAX was rallying 1.1 percent, France’s CAC 40 index was climbing 1 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was moving up 0.6 percent.
Banks led the surge, with Commerbank, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered climbing 2-3 percent.
Automakers were also broadly higher. BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Peugeot and Renault rose 1-2 percent.
RWE AG shares advanced 1 percent as the German utility confirmed its forecast for 2017 in the upper end of the range after good performance in the first six months.
Engineering group Bilfinger jumped 2.3 percent after its Q2 net loss narrowed from last year.
Danone shares rallied 1.4 percent after the New York Post newspaper said in a report over the weekend that the French food firm could be a takeover target.
Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore climbed 1-2 percent in London as copper and aluminum prices held near recent two-year highs on a weaker dollar following Friday’s weak U.S. inflation data.
British tour operator TUI jumped as much as 5 percent in the wake of an upgrade from Credit Suisse.
