By Julien Ponthus
LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish equities rebounded on Monday from their losses following the declaration of independence on Friday, reassured by weekend demonstrations for a unified Spain and a poll showing a lead for parties opposed to Catalan independence.
Spain's IBEX (IBEX) benchmark outperformed a flat pan-European STOXX 600 index (STOXX) with a 1.6 percent rise, led by Caixabank (MC:CABK) and Banco de Sabadell (MC:SABE), which jumped about 4 percent each.
"This makes sense to me in light of recent developments", Stephane Barbier de la Serre, strategist at Makor Capital Markets told Reuters
Barbier said there was a clear sense among investors that the crisis would eventually be resolved.
He argued that Spanish shares had still some catching up to do in comparison with the broader European markets and warned that the "road to normalization" was likely to be bumpy and generate some volatility in the weeks to come.
Spain's Bankia (MC:BKIA) gained 1.1 percent. The state-owned lender posted a 10 percent fall in third-quarter net profit as lending income remained pressured by low interest rates.
European tech stocks were in the spotlight after their peers in the United States and Asia surged, bolstered by solid earnings from U.S. stalwarts and on strong pre-orders for Apple's iPhone X.
European iPhone suppliers STMicro (PA:STM), Dialog Semi (DE:DLGS) and AMS (S:AMS) rose 3 percent, 4.8 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.
A number of stocks benefited from brokers' upgrades such Rexel (PA:RXL), up 2.9 percent, Gemalto (AS:GTO) up 0.7 percent and Kingfisher (L:KGF) up 2.7 percent.
UK housebuilders Bellway and Berkeley lost 2.7 percent and 3.5 percent respectively after a downgrade for both from Barclays (LON:BARC).
Still in London, shares in HSBC (L:HSBA) fell 0.9 percent despite reporting a five-fold jump in its quarterly profits and as broker Investec maintained its sell rating on the stock.
More European banks are due to report later during the week, such as BNP Paribas (Pa:BNPP), Credit Suisse (S:CSGN) or Societe Generale (PA:SOGN).
Glencore (L:GLEN) rose 0.2 percent after falling early in the session after a trading update and a report saying it would cancel its secondary listing in Hong Kong due to lack of interest from investors.
The FTSE 100 (FTSE) slipped 0.1 percent at the start of a week that could see the Bank of England raise interest rates for first time since 2007.
On the mergers and acquisitions front, Swiss drugmaker Novartis (S:NOVN) slipped 0.7 percent after offering to buy France's Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) (O:AAAP) in a $3.9 billion cash deal.
Dutch paints maker Akzo Nobel (AS:AKZO), under pressure after rejecting a lucrative takeover offer and two profit warnings, confirmed talks with smaller U.S. rival Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (N:AXTA) and shed 0.5 percent.