Europe: Shares rise for fourth straight session

[LONDON] European shares rose on Tuesday, with Italian bank stocks outperforming on expectations of measures to tackle their bad debts, while better earnings also helped carmakers' shares.

The pan-European StoxxEurope 600 index and the similar FTSEurofirst 300 index both rose 1.1 per cent, marking out their fourth straight day of gains.

Autos and banks were among the top gainers, up 3.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.

Carmaker Daimler rose 4.4 per cent after second quarter results beat expectations, helped by higher earnings in van and bus operations.

"We reiterate our 'Buy' on Daimler on the expected outperformance in passenger cars (further market share gains, best-in-class margins), especially over BMW," analysts at UBS said in a note.

Italian bank UniCredit surged 13.5 per cent, the top Stoxx 600 riser, after it successfully placed 10 per cent of its online broker FinecoBank at 5.40 euros per share, pocketing 328 million euros (S$488 million).

Other Italian bank stocks also rose sharply.

Even though the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast on Italy, the country's banking stocks rose on expectations that Italy would reach a deal to safeguard its banks, which are struggling with bad debts.

However, Norwegian bank DNB fell 7.6 per cent after warning of bigger loan losses this year and reporting higher-than-expected Q2 impairments due to a slump in Norway's key oil sector.

REUTERS