INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
LONDON: European shares edged up on Tuesday morning as sentiment regarding tensions between the US and Russia eased up with attention
shifting to the first-quarter earnings season and deal-making.
The pan-regional STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 per cent by 0740 GMT, while other
European benchmarks were also trading in positive territory, catching up slightly with a strong close on Wall Street.
Data from China
however gave a mixed picture of the country's economic health as growth hit a welcome 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 but separate
figures showed March industrial output missed expectations.
"After a calming of geopolitical concerns and optimism about the Q1 earnings
season, mixed data from China may revive queries about the strength of the world's #2 economy," Accendo Markets analysts Mike van Dulken and
Artjom Hatsaturjants told their clients.
Sweden's Intrum Justitia surged more than 11 per cent, and posted the best performance of the index
after it filed a binding bid for Intesa Sanpaolo's debt collection unit in a 3.6 billion euro deal that rids the Italian bank of 10.8
billion euros ($13 billion) in bad debts.
While Italy's non-performing loans used to be seen as a major threat to the country's economy and
by extension to the Euro zone, they are no longer the concern they used to be and Milan's stock market has been outperforming its peers for
months.
Intesa Sanpaolo was up 0.7 per cent while Italy's FTSE MIB rose 0.3 per cent, ahead of other indices such as Paris' CAC 40 up 0.1
per cent of Germany's DAX 0.2 per cent.
Britain's Associated British Foods was a top performer, up 3.6 per cent after reporting first-half
profit, with a resilient performance at its Primark fashion business and a previously flagged reduction in sugar revenues.
Shares in French
healthcare group Sanofi retreated slightly, down 0.2 per cent after it announced exclusive talks with private equity firm Advent
International to sell its Zentiva European generics drugs arm to Advent for 1.9 billion euros ($2.4 billion).
Still on the French MA front,
Lagardere, the French media group whose assets include Paris Match magazine and Europe 1 radio, rose 0.8 per cent after it said it would
sell some eastern European radio assets to Czech Media Invest.
Shares in French supermarket Casino rose 0.6 per cent after the company
reported a 3.1 per cent rise in first-quarter sales that reflected stronger performance in its Geant Casino hypermarkets and in Brazil
