European shares rose and US stocks hit record highs yesterday, helped by corporate results, while uncertainty about French elections pushed the euro to its biggest loss in about three weeks.

The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar in over a week as construction became the latest sector to signal Britain’s economy is losing momentum, with the UK heading for a referendum that may push it out of the world’s largest trading bloc.

Portugal just can’t shake off its bears. The nation’s shorter-term notes are under-performing their counterparts across the eurozone even as a recovery in stocks and oil prices boosted demand for higher-yielding assets.

Volkswagen shares climbed yesterday as it all but eliminated one front in the pollution scandal that has plagued the car maker for nearly three months, after the company’s suspicions of illegal discrepancies in carbon-dioxide emissions proved unfounded.

Creditor officials and Greek authorities have begun talks intended to unlock bailout funds, as some euro-area central bankers were said to raise opposition to the prospect of additional emergency cash for the country's banks.

Eurozone government bonds with longer maturities surged yesterday as the region’s central banks bought sovereign debt for a second day, pushing yields closer to those on shorter-dated notes.

Private equity firms are circling Bayer’s €10bn plastics business, hoping to divert the German drugmaker from its plan to list the division, two people familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Lufthansa cut profit targets for the next two years citing competition from Middle East and low-cost rivals, sending shares plunging.

Ratings agency Moody’s has today downgraded seven banks in Germany, citing risks from the eurozone debt crisis and prospects of weaker global economic growth.

SPAIN and Italy exceeded expectations in raising short-term money in abundance and at much reduced rates on the markets.

SPAIN and Italy spread cheer through eurozone markets yesterday with successful debt auctions at sharply lower borrowing costs, in 2012’s first real test of appetite for debt from the eurozone’s periphery.

EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) policymakers underscored the case for an April rate hike yesterday as Portugal’s political crisis raised the prospect of another spell of reluctant ECB bond market intervention.

ALLIED Irish Banks plans to issue a euro senior floating rate note targeted at German investors.

THE euro hit a new record high against the dollar, rising above the former record achieved last February of $1.2927 as traders trundled out of the dollar and into the European currency.

THE uncertainty about the possibility of war was the underlying factor which wiped millions of euro from the value of shares on stock markets across the globe yesterday, according to Goodbody Stockbrokers head of research Colin Hunt.