ROME: A bank rally helped push European equities higher after a two-day decline.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.8 percent to 390.61 at the close in London, with equities beginning a rally in the last two hours of trading. Standard Chartered Plc led a jump in lenders as it rose to its highest price since October. The broad benchmark gauge earlier slipped as much as 0.2 percent after an index tracking euro-area manufacturing and services increased less than forecast.
“There have been some mixed signs from the European data, but the ECB’s commencement of its QE program is still very much the focus of markets,” said Keith Bowman, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London. “I’m still optimistic on European equities. With the QE program in the background, that does provide significant support.”
Investors are waiting for Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting for details about the quantitative-easing program announced in January. The ECB will also give its first growth and inflation forecasts for 2017 for clues on the duration of the plan. The central bank’s move sparked a rally of almost 15 percent in the Stoxx 600 this year through the end of February.