30 Jun 2009

Europe stocks close higher

5:48 am on 30 June 2009

European shares closed higher on Monday as crude oil prices lifted energy stocks.

Investors were in a buying mood as the first half of the year winds down.

Markets in the United States will be closed on Friday for the 4 July Independence Day holiday.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed up 1.8% at 859.63 after falling nearly 2% last week.

Banks also rose: BNP Paribas, Banco Santander and Barclays were higher by 2.7% - 4.1%. Lloyds gained 5.5%.

In Frankfurt, the DAX index ended at 4,885.09 points, up 108.62 or 2.27%.

In Paris, the CAC-40 index closed at 3,193.68 points, up 63.95 or 2.04%. The Swiss market index closed at 5,443.45 points, up 67.46 or 1.25%.

In London, the FTSE 100 was 53.02 points higher, 1.25%, at 4,294.03, recovering most of last week's decline of 1.5%.

Other markets

In Japan, the Nikkei fell 93.92 points, 0.5%, to 9,783.47.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index finished down 71.75 points, 0.39%, at 18,528.5.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.43% or 16.9 points to 3,886.9 points. The All Ordinaries lost 16.8 points, or 0.43%, to 3882.7.

In New Zealand, the NZX50 share maket was up 4 points, or 0.1%, at 2775 on turnover of $70 million on Monday.

In currency markets the dollar was trading at 64.33 US cents, 80.25 Australian cents, 39.05 pence, 61.45 yen and 0.4588 euro.The Trade Weighted Index was at 60.73.