Investing.com - European stocks extended gains on Wednesday, as speculation over possible additional stimulus measures by the European Central Bank continued to support European equities.
During European afternoon trade, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 rallied 1.35%, France’s CAC 40 advanced 1.13%, while Germany’s DAX jumped 1.41%.
ECB governing council member and Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said Tuesday that a negative deposit rate could be an appropriate way to address the impact of strong gains in the euro.
He also said it was not out of the question for the ECB to buy loans or other assets from banks to fight deflation, indicating a softening of the Bundesbank’s stance on quantitative easing.
Separately, ECB Governing Council member Josef Makuch said the bank is prepared to take decisive steps if necessary, adding that many policy options are available, including adding liquidity.
Financial stocks turned broadly higher, as French lenders BNP Paribas (BNPP.PAR) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PAR) gained 0.67% and 1.82%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.XETRA) climbed 0.53%.
Among peripheral lenders, Italy's Unicredit (CRDI.MILAN) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MILAN) advanced 0.67% and 1.28% respectively, while Spanish banks Santander (SAN.MADRID) and BBVA (BBVA.MADRID) surged 1.40% and 2.13%.
Elsewhere, Telefonica (TEF.MADRID) shares dropped 0.88% after Telefonica Global Solutions and Akamai Technologies formed a strategic global alliance to deliver Akamai's suite of content delivery network (CDN) solutions to Telefonica enterprise customers.
In London, FTSE 100 gained 0.47%, still led by Standard Life (SL.LSE), up 7.02%, after the financial group said it agreed to buy Ignis Asset Management from Phoenix Group Hldgs (PHNX.LSE) for £390 million cash.
Mining stocks also remained broadly higher, as Glencore Xstrata (GLEN.LSE) climbed 0.81% and Rio Tinto (RIO.LSE) jumped 1.39%, while rivals Antofagasta (ANTO.LSE) and Vedanta Resources (VED.LSE) rallied 2.50% and 3.20% respectively.
On the downside, Vodafone (VOD.LSE) dipped 0.04% following reports the company's East-African unit Safaricom may abandon its bid to acquire assets owned by Essar Telecom Kenya in the absence of regulatory clearance.
Financial stocks continued to add to losses, with shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.LSE) easing 0.03% and Barclays (BARC.LSE) dropping 0.56%, while Lloyds Banking (LLOY.LSE) plunged 3.95%. HSBC Holdings (HSBA.LSE) overperformed however, up 0.44%.
Lloyds Banking came under selling pressure amid reports the U.K. lender has cost victims of the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal tens of millions of pounds by wrongly cutting their compensation awards, accoding to a new investigation.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.27% rise, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.24% gain, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.38% increase.
Also Wednesday, data showed that the Gfk German consumer climate index remained unchanged at 8.5 in March, in line with expectations.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on durable goods orders.