European stocks rebound to end higher

LONDON: European stock markets rallied Wednesday despite high tension over the Ukraine crisis, heartened by strong company earnings, Chinese growth data and a positive start on Wall Street.
Shares had ended sharply lower on Tuesday as the escalating military crisis in Ukraine spooked investors, traders said.
But news that China, the world’s second-largest economy, is growing faster than expected set a hopeful tone in Europe, which was bolstered by upbeat earnings reports.
“The return of risk appetite comes in spite of the persistent worries about the escalating situation in the Ukraine,” said Ishaq Siddiqi, a market analyst at ETX Capital.
“The situation in Ukraine, although worrying as its fluid, is being put aside by financial markets who are now focused on the better China data for inspiration to snap up assets at lower levels.”
London’s FTSE 100 ended up 0.65 per cent compared to Tuesday’s closing level, at 6,584.17 points after official data showed British unemployment had reached a five-year low point.
Germany’s DAX 30 rose 1.56 per cent to finish the day at 9,316.99 points and the CAC-40 in Paris won 1.39 per cent to close on 4,405.66 points.
In Europe on Wednesday, earnings updates that were well-received by the market saw shares in supermarket giant Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, climb 2.62 percent to 293,80 pence.
Wall Street also gained, helped by positive housing starts and permits data for March ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book on current US economic conditions.
Good earnings from Yahoo and Intel after the bell helped markets to open higher after concerns about flaring tensions between Ukraine and Russia dragged down prices on Tuesday.
In mid-afternoon trading Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.62 percent at 16,362.59.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.67 percent to 1,855.28, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.58 percent at 4057.53.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold increased to $1,301.50 an ounce from $1,298 Tuesday. The euro eased to $1.3811 from $1.3813 late in New York Tuesday.
The European single currency fell to 82.25 British pence from 82.59 pence on Tuesday, while the pound advanced to $1.6791 from $1.6726.
Meanwhile: Asian markets mostly closed higher on Wednesday in the wake of Wall Street’s gains and as Chinese economic growth came in above forecasts in the first three months of the year.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the world’s number two economy expanded 7.4 percent year-on-year in January-March.
Japan’s Nikkei index led regional gains, with a jump of 3.0 percent, thanks to a weaker yen after the head of the country’s central bank said it was on course to meet its inflation target next year.