By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks rose Tuesday, with a
reversal in course putting the regional equity index on the path to
logging a new finishing high.
The Stoxx Europe 600 shed earlier losses and turned up 0.2% to
349.26. The pan-European index ended Monday's session up by 0.4% at
348.61, the strongest close since Jan. 9, 2008, according to
FactSet data.
Stock benchmarks across Europe have reached multiyear or record
highs recently in anticipation and in response to a range of
monetary easing measures launched last week by the European Central
Bank, which has been grappling with low levels of inflation and
lackluster economic growth in the euro area.
Italy's FTSE MIB Italy Index was up 0.3% to 22,553, poised for
its best close since mid-February 2011, and Spain's IBEX 35 rose
0.1% to 11,170, looking for its highest finish since late-April
2010.
Germany's DAX 30 on Monday hit a record close of 10,008.63. On
Tuesday, the index turned up 0.2% to 10,026.60, topped by a 2.4%
rise for potash producer K&S AG . But losses of 0.6% each for
auto makers BMW and Volkswagen AG limited gains for the DAX.
European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann
told German newspaper Boersen-Zeitung that the latest round of
actions -- including bringing interest rates into negative
territory -- breaks "new ground" for the bank, and that the moves
were aimed at reaching the real economy, according to Reuters.
Industrial output readings from Italy and France gave investors
a glimpse of conditions seen at the start of the second quarter.
Production in Italy rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.7% in
April, above the 0.4% rise expected in a Dow Jones Newswires survey
of economists. French industrial production rose 0.3% in April,
rebounding from contraction in March.
Meanwhile, manufacturing output in the U.K. rose in April from
March, by 0.4%, reinforcing the view that recovery in the British
economy remains on track.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index was, however, down 0.4% at 6,851.09,
with BG Group PLC shares off 1.2% after Exane BNP Paribas cut its
rating on the oil company to neutral from outperform.
Logging one of the steepest declines on the Stoxx 600 was Bank
of Ireland . The stock fell 3.5% after the lender said U.S.
billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr. will sell his remaining stake
in the company and has resigned as a director.
Booker Group PLC was also hit, falling 2.5% after Goldman Sachs
dropped the food wholesaler from its pan-Europe conviction buy
list.
Sports Direct International PLC was removed from Goldman's
conviction buy list "as the upside to our target price is now lower
following a period of good performance. We have higher conviction
elsewhere in the European retail sector as a result," said analysts
at Goldman. Sports Direct shares were down 1.3%.
In France, the CAC 40 shrugged off losses and rose 0.2% to
4,597.95, on its way to a fifth consecutive advance.
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