ROME: Europe’s main stock markets have closed higher with all eyes on US economic data and prospects of an interest rate hike in the world’s biggest economy.
Investors on Wednesday also reacted to developments over Greece and China, analysts said.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index ended the day 1 per cent higher at 6,7432.94 points.
Eurozone indices performed better, with Frankfurt’s DAX 30 finishing 1.6 per cent ahead at 11,636,30 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris closed up 1.7 per cent at 5,196.73
The euro fell to $US1.0867 from $US1.0882 late in New York on Tuesday.
Greece’s main stock index ended the day 2.5 per cent down, with banking shares taking a battering for a third day running.
Trading resumed in Athens on Monday, five weeks after the government imposed capital controls to prevent a bank run and stave off financial collapse at the height of its standoff with EU-IMF creditors over a new bailout.
The ATHEX index had finished Tuesday down 1.2 per cent after suffering its steepest ever fall of 16.3 per cent on Monday.
The Greek government and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker have meanwhile expressed hope that debt-crippled Greece and its creditors will reach a deal on a new rescue package in time for August 20, when Athens is due to pay the European Central Bank €3.4 billion ($A5bn).
“All the reports I am getting suggest an accord this month, preferably before the 20th,” Mr Juncker told AFP in an interview on Wednesday.
