European shares rise due to Franco-German accord
European shares rose on Thursday, with banking stocks the major gainers after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy reached a joint position over a second bailout for Greece.
Banks extended their rebound to feature among the top performers, with the STOXX Europe 600 Banks index up 1.1 percent after making their biggest one-day percentage gain since January in the previous session.
The details of the common position will be presented at the euro zone leaders summit and have not yet been made public.
?France and Germany striking an accord is very good news for the euro zone and is what we have been looking for and it has been greeted quite well,? Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index, said.
?But the risk of contagion still remains, the Greece problem has not really gone away just been brushed aside.? By 0706 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,095.42 points.
[Reuters]
