Greek bailout and car sales lift European equities

Traders are pictured at their desks in front of the DAX board at the Frankfurt stock exchange. Reuters

European equities rose on Thursday, following the approval of new bailout terms by Greece’s parliament and improved car sales.

Stock markets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman were closed for the Eid Al Fitr holidays.

Germany’s Dax rose 1.5 per cent, while the CAC 40 in Paris ended the day up 1.4 per cent. The FTSE 100 was up 0.6 per cent in late trade in London.

Among Greece’s 300 MPs, 229 voted to approve the sweeping reform package – including an overhaul of pensions, corporation tax and VAT – in the early hours of yesterday morning, despite 32 members of the governing Syriza party voting against the deal.

Later in the day euro-zone finance ministers agreed a €7 billion (Dh27.93bn) bridging loan to Greece, potentially enabling it to meet a €3.5bn payment due on Monday to the European Central Bank.

Meanwhile the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said that new car registrations across the continent rose 15 per cent year on year in June, the largest jump since 2009.

Rising optimism over a Greek deal, together with the Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen’s confirmation that the Fed’s plans to raise US interest rates later this year, prompted a fall in safe haven US and Germany treasury bonds.

The ECB governor Mario Draghi confirmed yesterday afternoon that interest rates in the euro zone would remain unchanged.

Asian stocks closed up marginally, as China’s Shanghai Composite recovered by 0.46 per cent after two days of decline.

Japan’s Topix ended the day up 0.8 per cent, while the Kospi in Seoul ended the day 0.7 per cent higher.

Kuwait’s stock exchange fell 0.5 per cent on the day, while bourses in Bahrain and Qatar slipped 0.2 per cent and 0.09 per cent respectively.

In the wider region shares in Egypt continued to recover ground after falling sharply earlier this month, ending the day up 1.7 per cent. The Emaar Properties Egyptian subsidiary Emaar Misr ended its third week of trading up 0.5 per cent at 3.54 Egyptian pounds, still 6.8 per cent lower than its listing price.

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