Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Investors Hub
European stocks have moved mostly higher on Monday, as media reports suggesting Deutsche Bank has begun tentative merger talks with rival Commerzbank helped investors shrug off global growth worries.
Traders also reacted positively to comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that interest rates are currently “appropriate” and “roughly neutral.?
While the French CAC 40 Index has edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent and the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.4 percent.
After failing to secure significant concessions from the European Union in the latest round of talks and with just two cabinet ministers backing her, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is facing increasing pressure to resign, the Telegraph reported.
It is believed that Tuesday’s vote on her Brexit deal could result in an even worse humiliation.
Deutsche Bank has jumped amid reports that its top executives have agreed to hold discussions with rival Commerzbank AG about a potential merger. Commerzbank shares have also rallied.
Charter Court Financial and OneSavings Bank have also moved sharply higher after the two U.K. challenger banks said they are in advanced discussions regarding a possible all-share combination of the two companies.
Provident Financial has also moved to the upside. The company reiterated that Non-Standard Finance’s nil-premium offer is strategically and financially flawed and presents significant risk in terms of both execution and shareholder value.
Meanwhile, aerospace group Safran has fallen in Paris after a Boeing 737 MAX plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed.
Clarkson has also slumped in London after its fiscal 2018 pre-tax profit declined to 42.9 million pounds from 45.4 million pounds in the previous year.
In economic news, German industrial production unexpectedly decreased in January, while exports were unchanged, underpinned mainly by demand from outside the European Union, preliminary data showed.
Industrial production decreased 0.8 percent month-on-month in January, while economists had predicted a 0.5 percent gain.
A 9.2 percent slump in the automobile industry influenced the January outcome, the Economy Ministry said.
