Positive start for markets

EUROPEAN stock markets made a positive start to the week on the back of the continent’s super-powers ramping up attempts to end the eurozone debt crisis and save the future of the single currency.

Yesterday’s meeting between German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy focused on a possible rewrite of the EU Treaty, in a bid to tighten economic co-operation between members. Also discussed was a faster-than-expected triggering of a permanent rescue fund, to next year.

Although some commentators suggested that convincing the rest of the eurozone on the merits of a closer union could still prove easier said than done, yesterday’s meeting, along with news of Italy’s new government announcing fresh proposals to cut the country’s debt levels, eased investor fears, with all leading European bourses showing decent gains.

In London, the FTSE was up by 0.28%; one of the smallest gains evident. Frankfurt’s DAX index was up slightly higher at 0.42%, but the CAC 40 in Paris — France’s benchmark index — rose by 1.15% to just over 3,200 points and Spain’s IBEX-35 gained 1.72%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index was up by nearly 3%.

In Dublin, strong gains for the likes of Kerry, Aryzta, CRH, Kingspan, Paddy Power, Smurfit Kappa, Irish Continental, ICON and Elan boosted the ISEQ — which was up by over 1.6% at 2,764 points. Fallers included DCC, Greencore, Origin Enterprises and UTV Media.

The day started with modest gains in Asia on the Nikkei and the Hang Seng; while yesterday afternoon was showing strong increases — of well over 1% — on the main Wall Street markets.

“If the eurozone holds together — as we suspect it will — there should be considerable upside for stocks,” Ian Scott, chief global strategist at Japanese brokerage, Nomura Holdings, told the Bloomberg news service.