Investing.com - European stocks were higher on Tuesday, as sentiment continued to be dominated by the Bank of Japan’s new monetary stimulus program.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 gained 0.63%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.53%, while Germany’s DAX 30 advanced 0.50%.
The BoJ conducted its first government bond purchasing operation on Monday, purchasing JPY1.2 trillion of Japanese government bonds maturing in five years or more.
Stocks found support as sovereign bond yields across the euro zone fell with investors moving away from Japanese bonds into higher yielding assets.
Financial stocks were broadly higher, as French lenders Societe Generale and BNP Paribas jumped 0.96% and 1.28%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank rallied 2.05% and 0.95%.
Peripheral lenders added to gains, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo surgng 1.28% and 4.92% respectively, while Spain's Banco Santander and BBVA added 0.04% and 0.46%.
Elsewhere, Repsol advanced 0.93% pafter spokesman Kristian Rix said the Spanish company encountered a 50-meter column of gas in the Sud-Est Illizi block in Algeria.
In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 climbed 0.65%, boosted by gains in oil and mining stocks.
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto saw shares surge 2.10% and 3.54%, while rival companies Vedanta Resources and Eurasian Natural Resources rallied 3.87% and 4.19% respectively.
Among copper producers, Xstrata jumped 2.56% and Kazakhmys soared 5.04%.
Oil and gas giant Anglo American was also on the upside, gaining 3.07%, as were BP and Tullow Oil, up 0.48% and 0.42%.
Meanwhile, U.K. lenders tracked their European counterparts higher. Shares in HSBC Holdings rose 0.40% and Lloyds Banking rallied 1.68%, while Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland surged 2.52% and 2.61% respectively.
On the downside, ICAP plummeted 3.45% following reports the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued subpoenas to ICAP brokers and as many as 15 Wall Street banks as part of an investigation into possible price manipulation of benchmark interest-rate swaps.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a moderately higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.02% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.09% rise, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.20% increase.
Also Tuesday, weak German trade data for February sparked fresh concerns over the outlook for the euro zone’s largest economy.
Germany’s trade surplus widened to EUR17.1 billion from 15.6 billion in January, above expectations for a surplus of EUR15.0 billion.
The report said exports fell 1.5% in February, while imports fell by 3.8%.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 gained 0.63%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.53%, while Germany’s DAX 30 advanced 0.50%.
The BoJ conducted its first government bond purchasing operation on Monday, purchasing JPY1.2 trillion of Japanese government bonds maturing in five years or more.
Stocks found support as sovereign bond yields across the euro zone fell with investors moving away from Japanese bonds into higher yielding assets.
Financial stocks were broadly higher, as French lenders Societe Generale and BNP Paribas jumped 0.96% and 1.28%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank rallied 2.05% and 0.95%.
Peripheral lenders added to gains, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo surgng 1.28% and 4.92% respectively, while Spain's Banco Santander and BBVA added 0.04% and 0.46%.
Elsewhere, Repsol advanced 0.93% pafter spokesman Kristian Rix said the Spanish company encountered a 50-meter column of gas in the Sud-Est Illizi block in Algeria.
In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 climbed 0.65%, boosted by gains in oil and mining stocks.
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto saw shares surge 2.10% and 3.54%, while rival companies Vedanta Resources and Eurasian Natural Resources rallied 3.87% and 4.19% respectively.
Among copper producers, Xstrata jumped 2.56% and Kazakhmys soared 5.04%.
Oil and gas giant Anglo American was also on the upside, gaining 3.07%, as were BP and Tullow Oil, up 0.48% and 0.42%.
Meanwhile, U.K. lenders tracked their European counterparts higher. Shares in HSBC Holdings rose 0.40% and Lloyds Banking rallied 1.68%, while Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland surged 2.52% and 2.61% respectively.
On the downside, ICAP plummeted 3.45% following reports the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued subpoenas to ICAP brokers and as many as 15 Wall Street banks as part of an investigation into possible price manipulation of benchmark interest-rate swaps.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a moderately higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.02% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.09% rise, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.20% increase.
Also Tuesday, weak German trade data for February sparked fresh concerns over the outlook for the euro zone’s largest economy.
Germany’s trade surplus widened to EUR17.1 billion from 15.6 billion in January, above expectations for a surplus of EUR15.0 billion.
The report said exports fell 1.5% in February, while imports fell by 3.8%.