Automotive shares recover following a rough couple of sessions
By Aude Lagorce, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Most European stock markets advanced Wednesday, helped by a rally in miners, as investors started to wave farewell to what’s been a solid 2010.
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The Stoxx 600 index (ST:STOXX600 280.28, +0.49, +0.18%) rose 0.2% to 280.44 in thin trading.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s, almost always a quiet interval for markets, didn’t start well for the benchmark: It lost 0.8% on Monday, though it managed to edge 0.2% higher on Tuesday.
Overall, though, the Stoxx 600 has had a very good year, surging 10% as better-than-expected U.S. economic data bolstered investors’ confidence in the global recovery.
Virtually all sectors traded in the green Wednesday, though activity was choppy.
“We had a little bit of an interruption when data from the European Central Bank showed that loans to households and companies grew at a faster-than-expected rate in October,” said Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland Research.
“That and M3 created a bit of concern that there could be the start of an inflation issue. It’s easy to have a bit of volatility on a day when trading is so thin. It remains a very quiet session and most people are at home,” he added.
M3, the broadest gauge of money supply, includes cash in circulation, some forms of savings and money-market holdings.
