ROME: European stocks closed higher Monday, helped by earnings-driven jumps by Intertek and Heineken and shrugging off the Greek equity market’s dive as it reopened.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +0.77% closed up 0.8% at 399.44, building on its rise in July that was its best monthly gain since February.
Greece restarts: Trading in Greek stocks on the Athens Stock Exchange began again Monday after a five-week closure. The Athex Composite GD, -16.23% closed down 16.2% after falling more than 20% out of the gate. The benchmark is off 19.1% year to date. When trading was halted June 29, the benchmark had a year-to-date loss of 3.5%.
“The political uncertainty is such that it will take a while until investor confidence in Greek assets is fully restored,” Gary Jenkins at LNG Capital told Dow Jones Newswires before the market reopened.
Trading was closed down after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on the country’s bailout terms.
