Miners pushed European stock markets higher today, offsetting weak banks, as metals prices jumped sharply on fears of disruption to copper supplies after the devastating earthquake in Chile.
Dealers said hopes that the European Union was close to announcing more concrete measures to deal with the debt crisis in Greece helped confidence.
A solid start on Wall Street following largely positive consumer spending and manufacturing data also helped buoy prices.
News that Britain's Prudential was to buy AIG's Asian business for a massive $35.5 billion added to the momentum even if the company's shares fell on concerns over how the deal is to be financed.
In London, the FTSE finished up 1% at 5,406 points, with shares in Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, down 5.2% to 682 pence sterling after it reported only a modest rise in 2009 net profits. In Paris, the CAC gained 1.6% to 3,770 points and in Frankfurt the DAX jumped 2.1% to 5,714 points.
Dublin's ISEQ index gained 0.9% to close at 2,898. The banks ended mixed, with Bank of Ireland down 2.3% to 97 cent, while AIB was up 1.4% to €1.00 ahead of its results for 2009 tomorrow. Irish Life and Permanent fell 1.1% to €2.72 ahead of its results later this week. Shares in Kingspan soared 11% to €5.55 after it said it was seeing tangible evidence of stability emerging in the construction markets.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 0.8% to 10,405 at around 5pm as investors took the Prudential news to signal that more key mergers - always a major trading lead - are in the pipeline. The Nasdaq was 1.4% higher at 2,270.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei closed 46 points (0.45%) higher at 10,172 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 448 points (2%) to 21,057.
