Europe's top shares rose today, climbing back into a range established in mid-May, as investors dipped their toes into beaten down stocks hoping policymakers will take action to boost flagging global growth.
Four straight sessions of gains, fuelled by expectations of forthcoming policy action, have helped European shares more than recover the ground lost on Friday, when weak economic data sent stocks to a six-month low.
Banking shares, which have fallen more than 20 percent since mid-March on their exposure to Europe's debt crisis, continued to bounce off recent lows, despite prevailing risks in the sector.
The sector has risen 5 per cent over the last week, reflecting some hope that action would be taken to prevent a meltdown of the financial sector.
France’s CAC was up 0.7 per cent, Germany’s DAX was up 0.3 per cent while London’s FTSE was 0.7 per cent higher.
In Dublin, the Iseq index of Irish shares added 0.5 per cent or 15 points to stand at 3,050.
Aer Lingus added 2.15 per cent to €0.95, Grafton gained 1.4 per cent to €2.78 and Abbey climbed 2.9 per cent to €6.07.
Meanwhile Providence Resources was down 2.26 per cent to €6.50.
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