European shares recover as banks rebound and Greece outperforms
European shares rose on Friday, with Greek equities among the best performers, led by a rebound in battered bank stocks.
The suspension of campaigning for Britain’s referendum on European Union membership also eased some of the selling pressure markets saw this week. The campaigns halted after a pro-EU British politician, Jo Cox, was killed on Thursday by a man wielding a gun and knife.
The pan-European STOXX 600 and FTSEurofirst 300 indexes both rose around 1.2 percent. They remained on course to end the week with a loss after falling close to four-month lows on Thursday.
Greece’s benchmark ATG equity index outperformed, rising 3.9 percent. Alpha Bank and Eurobank Ergasias surged more than 10 percent after Greece got its latest financial aid from European authorities.
“Greece has seen a bit of a bounce after the Eurogroup granted Greece its latest 7.5 billion euros ($8.4 billion) tranche of funding,” said Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets Limited.
[Reuters]
