Europe rallies as Wall Street rebounds

A rebound on Wall Street buoyed global equity markets yesterday, but lingering anxiety over world economic growth pushed US and German bond prices higher. Worries about a slowing global economy and fears of Ebola have also made markets more volatile.

European stocks, meanwhile, pulled out of an eight-month low, as a rally in commodity companies and carmakers offset a slump in German investor confidence.

DUBLIN

It was a mixed day on the Dublin market yesterday, with a rebound in the afternoon. Volumes were a little below average, but the Iseq outperformed other indices to close up 1.2 per cent at 4,516.01.

There were nice moves in the airlines, with Aer Lingus and Ryanair both climbing. Aer Lingus rose 4.8 per cent to €1.37, while Ryanair was up 3.2 per cent to €6.96.

Dragon Oil fell 3.52 per cent to €6.57. The company yesterday announced that it is on track to produce between 5 per cent and 10 per cent more oil this year. It also said it remains in discussions with Petroceltic over a possible takeover offer.

PetroNeft Resources was down 6.9 per cent to 8 cent. The explorer yesterday said that a vertical pilot hole had been successfully completed at its T-5 well in Tomsk Oblast in Russia.

LONDON

A rise in major mining stocks, coupled with solid US corporate results, enabled Britain’s top equity index to rise off 15-month lows yesterday.

The FTSE 100 index climbed 26.4 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 6,392.7 despite early trading being hit by falling oil prices and more worries about the health of the euro-zone economy.

Lower oil prices helped British Airways owner International Airlines Group to top the FTSE 100 risers' board with a climb of 5 per cent. Shares have been falling as the Ebola crisis has developed, but today climbed 15.5p to 339.6p.

Luxury goods group Burberry dropped 3.7 per cent to 1,425p after it warned that conditions in some of its markets, including China, had worsened during the second quarter.

Mulberry Group tumbled 10 per cent to 675p after the luxury-products maker said it expects full-year earnings to come in "significantly" below projections.

EUROPE European shares were little changed, paring losses in late trading, as carmakers and commodity producers rallied, while investors weighed evidence that Europe’s economic woes are hurting companies’ earnings potential and weakening investor confidence.

Daimler gained 3.7 per cent to €58.79 after the world's third-largest maker of luxury cars said its cash flow from industrial operations had surged about 80 per cent in the third quarter.

Iliad advanced 9.6 per cent to €171.10, its biggest gain in seven months. The Paris-based telecoms provider abandoned a plan to buy a majority stake in T-Mobile US after an improved bid was spurned by the wireless carrier's owner, Deutsche Telekom.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 321.53 at the close of trading, after earlier losing as much as 1.4 per cent. Germany’s DAX index rose 0.2 per cent; France’s CAC 40 Index climbed 0.2 per cent.

US

US stocks rose in early trading yesterday, rebounding after the S&P 500’s worst three-day drop since November 2011, as bullish investors hoped a solid earnings season would ease global growth concerns.

Citigroup, up 3.2 per cent to $51.48, was a top boost to the benchmark S&P index after the bank posted better-than-expected quarterly results and said it would pull out of consumer banking in 11 markets.

But JPMorgan Chase shares lost 1.1 per cent to $57.54 after the biggest US bank posted third-quarter earnings.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank, lost 1.6 per cent to $49.39 after its results.

Johnson & Johnson shares lost 1.3 per cent to $97.82.

– Additional reporting PA, Reuters, Bloomberg