European shares extend recovery rally
European shares extend recovery rally
Paris: European shares rose early on Friday, adding to their rally following central bank action to boost liquidity and ahead of a meeting between US Treasury Secretary and European finance ministers to discuss leveraging the euro zone’s bailout fund.
At 1:45pm, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2% at 934.38 points. The benchmark index has risen 6.5% since hitting a 2-year low on Tuesday in a rally marked by strong volumes, a bullish sign.
But the rebound, led by recovering banking shares, seemed to be losing steam on Friday, with the euro zone’s blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index failing to stay above a key resistance level -- the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the 1-13 September drop -- after testing it in the first minutes of trading.
After an hour of trading, the index was up only 0.1% at 2,156.37 points after gaining more than 1% early.
Financials featured among the top gainers, with Credit Suisse up 4.2% and ING up 3.2%, while a number of euro zone banks such as Societe Generale and UniCredit struggled to stay in positive territory after paring early gains.
“The liquidity issues have been fixed in the short term, but it doesn’t change Greece’s solvency issues,"The XML page cannot be displayed.
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