MW: European shares gain ground as gold hits fresh high
Miners advance; Aer Lingus announces cost-cutting plan
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares traded higher on Wednesday, shrugging off a lackluster start to the session after gold futures hit another all time high.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 241.73, +0.56, +0.23%) recently traded up 0.3% at 241.88.
On Tuesday, the index ended with a 2.2% gain after record gold prices boosted the mining sector.
Gold futures hit another record high on Wednesday, of $1,049.50, as the dollar weakened again against major rivals.
Miners were getting a lift from the record gold price for the second day in a row, with BHP Billiton (UK:BLT 1,762, +27.50, +1.58%) (BHP 66.12, +1.43, +2.21%) shares up 1.3% and Anglo American (UK:AAL 2,123, +25.00, +1.19%) shares up 1.4%.
Major regional European equity markets were also higher, with the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,141, +2.56, +0.05%) up 0.2% at 5,148.57, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,678, +20.81, +0.37%) up 0.2% at 5,670.26 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,784, +14.06, +0.37%) up 0.4% at 3,783.90.
Asian equity markets were mostly higher and U.S. stock futures were firm. See Asia Markets.
Of other notable movers in Europe, shares of banking group Julius Baer (CH:BAER 39.20, +1.20, +3.16%) climbed 2.4% after it agreed to acquire the Swiss private banking business of ING Group in a deal worth 520 million Swiss francs ($506 million). ING shares rose 3.6%. See full story.
Shares of Irish airline Aer Lingus (UK:AERL 0.76, +0.03, +4.17%) jumped 5.9% after it said that it's planning to cut annual operating costs, excluding fuel, by 97 million euros before the end of 2011. See full story on Aer Lingus cost cuts.
A reduced flight schedule and changes to work practices are expected to result in a surplus of approximately 489 positions in the first phase. In the second phase of the plan, another 187 positions will be lost in head office and support areas. See full story.
Separately, the firm said that it carried 960,000 passengers in September, up 4.1% compared to a year ago.
Air France-KLM (FR:AF 12.45, -0.10, -0.80%) shares declined 0.7% after it said that September passenger traffic dropped 3.7%, while capacity fell 4.9%, leading its load factor to rise 1 percentage point to 81.9%. Load factor measures passengers to available seats.
Some retailers were also under pressure, with shares of Germany's Metro (DE:MEO 37.29, +0.09, +0.24%) down 2.8% after Otto Beisheim Group said it has successfully sold a 5.2% stake in Metro.
Also, shares of supermarket group J Sainsbury (UK:SBRY 313.28, -9.72, -3.01%) declined 3.3%.
