Europe: Stocks hit fresh record high as miners rally

[BENGALURU] European stocks extended a record-setting rally on Monday as optimism about the reopening of economies and easy monetary policy lifted cyclical sectors, including mining and financials.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.1 per cent to hit a fresh all-time high in early trading, with miners rallying 2.2 per cent on the back of strong metal prices.

UK's commodity-heavy FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent despite a surge in the pound, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set to announce the next phase of reopening from the Covid-19 lockdown.

British Airways-owner IAG, easyJet and Wizz Air, however, fell between 1.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent after UK allowed international travel to resume from May 17, but just 12 countries made the so-called "green list".

German biotech company BioNTech surged 10.8 per cent after revealing plans to build a new manufacturing site for its vaccines based on messenger RNA technology (mRNA) in Singapore.

REUTERS