Market Commentary and Intraday News

German Market Higher After Greece Polls

366 days ago

(RTTNews) - The German market is moderately higher in afternoon trading Monday, after the pro-bailout party won a narrow victory in the elections held in Greece on Sunday. However, some of that enthusiasm has begun to wear off with investors slowly turning their attention to the core debt problem. The Asian markets rose on the news.

The conservative New Democracy party won 129 seats, still short of a majority in the 300-member parliament, over left-wing rivals. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras declared victory in the election and called parties to join a national salvation government, "as soon as possible."

Delivering a victory speech on Sunday night, he said Greeks had voted to stay in the euro, and termed it a victory for "all Europe." He said Greece would honor its obligations to its lenders.

Meanwhile, the Eurogroup said in a statement on Sunday that Greece's international creditors might return to Athens once the new government is in place to assist the country in its fiscal adjustment effort.

The troika, consisting of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, will return to Athens as soon as a new government is in place "to exchange views" with the new government on the way forward and prepare the first review under the second adjustment
program, it said.

Reports that emerged over the weekend citing the German weekly Der Spiegel said the European Union is preparing a framework for the joint issuance of the short-term common debt instruments for the currency bloc. The magazine reported that states can issue the so called "euro bills" up to a predetermined percentage of economic output.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.07 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is gaining 0.17 percent.

The DAX index is currently higher by 0.9 percent.

Volkswagen is advancing 2.1 percent. Daimler is climbing 1.8 percent and BMW is up 1.3 percent.

Fresenius Medical Care is gaining 2 percent and ThyssenKrupp is rising 1.9 percent.

Commerzbank is declining 2.4 percent and Deutsche Bank is losing 1.3 percent.

Prime Office REIT is losing 1.9 percent. Deutsche Bank initiated the stock with a "Hold" rating.

Elsewhere in Europe, the French CAC 40 is adding 0.4 percent and Switzerland's SMI is gaining 0.62 percent. The UK's FTSE 100 is adding 0.45 percent.

In economic news, data from a survey by the Conference Board showed that a leading indicator of the French economy declined in April, after growing in the previous two months. The leading economic index decreased 0.1 percent month-on-month to 113.7 in April. The index increased a revised 0.4 percent in March and 0.6 percent in February.

Across Asia/Pacific, major markets ended higher. Australia's All Ordinaries climbed 1.9 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.40 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.8 percent.

In the U.S., futures point to a mixed open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the markets continued to benefit from optimism about the likelihood of further stimulus measures from the world's central banks. The major averages ended the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow climbed 0.9 percent, the Nasdaq jumped 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 surged up 1 percent.

In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is gaining $0.02 to $84.05 per barrel while August gold is falling $3.8 to $1624.3 a troy ounce.

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