Europe open: Stocks rally amid fall in Covid-19 fatalities
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Monday 06 Apr 2020
(Sharecast News) - Stocks on the Continent were rallying at the start of the week, boosted by news of falling death rates in France, Italy and Spain, together with a noticeable drop in the rate of new infections in the latter.
"While this is welcome, none of these countries have shown that they are inclined to lift their lockdowns any time soon, despite reports that some countries are looking at possible exit strategies," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
"With infection rates still very high, talk of an exit strategy seems rather premature at this stage, especially since testing processes are still in their infancy, and infection rates are still quite high."
As of 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was adding 3.72% to 318.16, alongside an advance of 4.41% to 9,946.50 for Germany's Dax and a rise of 3.32% to 6,801.5 for Spain's Ibex 35.
Travel & Leisure issues were doing especially well, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge trading higher by 6.67% to 145.76.
In parallel, front-dated Brent futures were off 3.5% to $32.88 a barrel.
A teleconference of OPEC+ energy ministers scheduled for Monday was pushed back to Thursday as policymakers from producer countries tried to broker a deal.
Reports at the weekend indicated that Norway, which does not belong to OPEC+, might participate in any cuts, and that officials from the Canadian province of Alberta would dial in to the call.
There was some positive news to be had on the macroeconomic front as well.
The Sentix Institute's investor confidence gauge for the Eurozone in April fell to -42.9 from the prior month reading of -17.1 (consensus: -37.5).
However, a sub-index tracking investor expectations picked up slightly, from -20.0 to -15.8, a development that Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics described as a "bullish" development.
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