Investing.com - European shares edged up on Monday following on from gains in Asian markets overnight after a record close on Wall Street on Friday.
The EURO STOXX 50 edged up 0.05% by 04:22 AM ET (09:22 GMT), France’s CAC 40 added 0.10%, while Germany’s DAX 30 inched up 0.09%.
In Frankfurt, shares in Steinhoff (F:S1V) rose 11% snapping three sessions of steep losses in the wake of its discovery of accounting irregularities.
Bayer (DE:BAYGN) shares advanced 0.94% as investors shrugged of a report that EU antitrust regulators are expected to warn the group in the coming weeks that its planned takeover of U.S. seed maker Monsanto (NYSE:MON) may hurt competition.
Bank stocks remained supported ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting, where officials are widely expected to raise interest rates.
HSBC (LON:HSBA) was the biggest gainer among banks, with shares up 1.85% while France's BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) was up 0.28% and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) pared back early losses to trade down 0.06%.
The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will also meet this week and are expected to hold rates steady.
In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.57% to its highest in more than two weeks boosted by the weaker pound.
GBP/USD was down 0.21% to 1.3365, well off Friday’s high of 1.3519, while EUR/GBP added 0.25% to trade at 0.8815.
Sterling came under renewed selling pressure amid fresh concerns over Brexit negotiations despite an apparent breakthrough reached last week.
Markets in Asian were buoyant overnight with Japan’s Nikkei climbing 0.56% to its highest in 26 years after strong U.S payrolls data and better-than-expected Chinese trade figures on Friday.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.16%, the S&P 500 futures rose 0.08% and the Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.18%.