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Europe midday: Stocks bounce as authorities ban short-selling, announce stimulus
13th Mar 2020 13:27
(Sharecast News) - Stocks across the Continent are bouncing back following a ban on short-selling Italian and Spanish stocks, and amid a coordinated economic response from European authorities.
In the background meanwhile, reports indicated that Spain was set to announce a country-wide 'state of emergency', towards 1400 GMT, so as to better be able to co-ordinate the response to the health crisis.
Overnight, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain jumped by roughly 1,200 to reach 4,209 and at last count 62 countries had restricted travel from the Mediterranean country.
"European stock markets are on fire as the EU, ECB and German government finally came to the party and told markets that they are ready to be the backstop," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
"The message today from Europe has been clearer, much clearer. Fiscal stimulus on the table. Europe has really rallied round after yesterday's shock to say they will do 'whatever it takes'. The clearer messaging from the authorities is supportive of equity markets."
As of 1342 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 5.77% higher at 311.94, alongside a 5.36% rise to 9,655.13 for the German Dax while the Cac-40 was 6.65% higher to 4,314.56.
Ten-year German bund yields meanwhile were 16 basis points higher at -0.58%.
Strikingly, outside of Dutch chip-maker STMicroelectronics, Loomis AB and UCB SA, all the ten top fallers on the Stoxx 600 were London listed shares, whereas the top ten gainers were all Italian, led by pharmaceutical group Recordati, which had launched a share buyback programme just the day before.
Crude oil futures on the other hand were only up a tad, adding 2.5% to $34.08 a barrel on the ICE, amid headlines pointing to Saudi and Moscow digging in their heels in their price war and promising to increase their respective levels of output.
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, German finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said the country would open the government spending taps to offset the impact of the coronavirus crisis and that the country may need to issue new debt in order to finance the increase in spending.
Meanwhile, the European Commission committed to maximum flexibility in the interpretation of the bloc's rules governing fiscal spending and state aid so that countries can aid businesses and workers.
The European Central Bank was also in the headlines, after Bank of Spain Governor, Pablo Hernandez de Cos, said the monetary authority had room to cut interest rates if required.
In the background meanwhile, reports indicated that Spain was set to announce a country-wide 'state of emergency', towards 1400 GMT, so as to better be able to co-ordinate the response to the health crisis.
Overnight, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain jumped by roughly 1,200 to reach 4,209 and at last count 62 countries had restricted travel from the Mediterranean country.
"European stock markets are on fire as the EU, ECB and German government finally came to the party and told markets that they are ready to be the backstop," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
"The message today from Europe has been clearer, much clearer. Fiscal stimulus on the table. Europe has really rallied round after yesterday's shock to say they will do 'whatever it takes'. The clearer messaging from the authorities is supportive of equity markets."
As of 1342 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 5.77% higher at 311.94, alongside a 5.36% rise to 9,655.13 for the German Dax while the Cac-40 was 6.65% higher to 4,314.56.
Ten-year German bund yields meanwhile were 16 basis points higher at -0.58%.
Strikingly, outside of Dutch chip-maker STMicroelectronics, Loomis AB and UCB SA, all the ten top fallers on the Stoxx 600 were London listed shares, whereas the top ten gainers were all Italian, led by pharmaceutical group Recordati, which had launched a share buyback programme just the day before.
Crude oil futures on the other hand were only up a tad, adding 2.5% to $34.08 a barrel on the ICE, amid headlines pointing to Saudi and Moscow digging in their heels in their price war and promising to increase their respective levels of output.
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, German finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said the country would open the government spending taps to offset the impact of the coronavirus crisis and that the country may need to issue new debt in order to finance the increase in spending.
Meanwhile, the European Commission committed to maximum flexibility in the interpretation of the bloc's rules governing fiscal spending and state aid so that countries can aid businesses and workers.
The European Central Bank was also in the headlines, after Bank of Spain Governor, Pablo Hernandez de Cos, said the monetary authority had room to cut interest rates if required.