LONDON: European stocks rebounded after an early swoon following the amazing victory by Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza on Sunday.
The Frankfurt DAX 30 was to be seen higher by 1.40% by the end of the session to reach 10,798.33, while Spain’s benchmark Ibex 35 and Paris’s Cac-40 both gained over a full percentage point.
The FTSE Mibtel also managed to close up, gaining 1.15% to 20,756.72.
Economists expect little volatility as a result of elections Syriza won 36.4% of the vote compared to 27.8% for the governing New Democracy party and are projected to win 149 seats versus the 151 needed for a majority on the 300 seat parliament.
Most economists seemed sanguine that even under a worst case scenario the threat to the Eurozone as a whole was rather limited given the financial reforms put in place over the last few years.
The yield on Greek 10-year sovereign bonds finished higher by 68 basis points higher at 9.12%, near its worst levels of the session.
Following an initial bout of weakness the euro/dollar climbed higher, appreciating by 1.07% to stand at 1.1268, though analysts pointed out the currency pair’s heavily ‘oversold’ technical readings.
German businessmen sentiment resilient The German IFO institute’s widely-followed gauge of business confidence, for the month of January, edged slightly past forecasts, rising for a third consecutive month to a level of 106.7 from 105.5 in the month before.
The consensus forecast had been for an increase to 106.3.
The Munich-based think-tank said: “Companies were far more satisfied with their current business situation and the majority was also optimistic about the business outlook.” Cyclicals turn around, move higher Within the DJ Stoxx 600 the sharpest gains were to be seen in the following industrial groups: Oil&Gas (1.58%), Automobiles&Parts (1.27%) and Basic Resources (1.06%).
