European stocks scored a broad-based rally today, mirroring gains in US and Asian markets and led by banks.
Oil firms such as BP rose as US crude oil prices gained 1 per cent to nearly $70 a barrel. Shares in Associated British Ports rallied 4 per cent to 862 pence as a group led by Goldman Sachs raised its bid for the company to 840p per share, after a rival group said it might make a counterbid.
By 8.10am, the pan-European FTSEuorfirst 300 index was 1 per cent stronger at 1,252.6 points, above a seven-month low of 1,230.1 points struck in the previous session on US interest rate worries.
The index has lost about 11 per cent from a nearly five-year high hit on May 11th, as risk aversion grows in financial markets.
Shares in French construction and concessions group Vinci fell 3 per cent after it rejected what it described as a hostile merger approach from Veolia Environnement, whose shares rose 2 per cent.