European shares open higher after new records in Asia, Wall Street

LONDON – 12 September 2017: European bourses continued their relief rally, opening higher on Tuesday after stock markets in Asia and in the U.S. hit new record highs as worries about Hurricane Irma and North Korea’s nuclear standoff eased.

All major trading centres and most sectors traded in positive territory as thee pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.3 percent, although some investors questioned how sustainable current markets levels are.

“Whether that equity reaction is Panglossian complacency or a sign of wonderful underlying fundamentals remains open to question,” ING wrote in a morning note, adding that “even Category 5 storms can now be added to the list of things that ‘Don’t Really Matter’”.

Financial stocks were yet again among the top performers, with financial services and banking respectively up 0.7 and 0.6 percent.

Insurance firms, which fuelled Europe’s rise on Monday with a roughly 2 percent jump, were again in positive territory, edging up 0.3 percent.

In other sectors, Volkswagen was up 0.3 percent after announcing a 20 billion euro plan on Monday to develop zero-emission vehicles.

Among losers, French veterinarian pharmaceutical company Virbac sank 11.7 percent after cutting its full-year outlook.