Rises amid oil bounce and stimulus talk

European stocks rose as oil shares rebounded from a six-day loss and optimism grew over stimulus prospects before this week’s European Central Bank (ECB) meeting.

The bank’s president Mario Draghi said the ECB may broaden its asset-buying programme to include government bonds, while central banks in Japan and China boosted stimulus measures. “Stocks are still showing they are the best game in town as energy prices sink, dragging deflation expectations,” said Daniel Weston, chief investment officer at Aimed Capital GmbH in Munich.

DUBLIN

Irish-Swiss food group,

Arytza

, owner of the Cuisine de France brand, dipped 0.19 per cent to €63.25 after reporting a near 14 per cent jump in first-quarter revenues to €1.26 billion. Its price also slipped 0.4 per cent to 76.10 Swiss francs in Zurich, where most of its shares are traded.

Low-cost airline Ryanair put in a strong performance, adding 2.09 per cent to €8.70 after investors bought close to 1.5 million of its shares in Dublin.

Investors also appeared to be keen to take a punt on Paddy Power. The listed bookmaker gained 2.28 per cent to close at €64.29.

Index heavyweight, international building materials group, CRH, added 0.17 per cent to close at €19.26.

Dragon Oil, which this week backed away from a bid for fellow Irish explorer, Petroceltic, citing market conditions, added 2.02 per cent to close €6.473.

LONDON

Irish DIY and builders’ merchants group,

Grafton

, ended the day unchanged at 640p following news that it bought UK firm,

Crescent Building Supplies

for an undisclosed sum.

Another Irish company, explorer Tullow Oil, climbed 6.04 per cent to 424.7p on the back of improved sentiment towards energy stocks generally and petroleum shares particularly.

Investors believe that the sector has been oversold on the back of sharp falls in oil prices in recent days, analysts noted.

BP jumped 4.7 per cent and Royal Dutch Shell climbed 4.1 per cent. Roberto Friedlander, head of equity trading at Brean Capital LLC, said speculation of a Shell bid for BP was "making the rounds."

Mining shares also gained. BHP Billiton, which gets more than half its revenue from iron ore and petroleum, climbed 2.2 per cent. ArcelorMittal rose 1.5 per cent. Among companies moving on corporate news, Friends Life Group rose 2.4 per cent after Aviva agreed to buy it for about £5.6 billion in stock.

EUROPE

French oil giant

Total

advanced 3.4 per cent.

Neopost

slumped 16 per cent after saying organic revenue this year will be close to stagnant, compared with a previous target of 1-3 per cent growth.

Lufthansa lost 1.2 per cent after saying a pilot strike that began yesterday will affect all routes today until midnight.

NEW YORK

US stocks rose as energy stocks led the S&P 500 and Dow, while Biogen’s rally on news about an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease topped gains at the Nasdaq. The day’s gains were broad, with nine of the 10 S&P 500 industry sectors higher.

Energy shares on the S&P 500 rose 1.3 per cent even as crude oil prices resumed their fall. US crude fell 2.4 per cent to near a five-year low while Brent lost 2.3 percent.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron were among the largest gainers on both the Dow and the S&P, up about 2 per cent each.

Among the most active names, Marathon Petroleum rose 3.7 per cent to $94.14, while Valero Energy was up 2 per cent at $50.88.

Cypress Semiconductor agreed to buy Spansion in an all-stock deal valued at about $4 billion. Separately, Otsuka Pharmaceutical said it would buy Avanir Pharmaceuticals for about $3.5 billion. Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters