Yahoo News: European stocks rose sharply on Wednesday, helped by hefty gains for oil and mining companies, and after Wall Street rallied in overnight trade. London’s FTSE 100 index of top shares jumped 1.31 percent to 5,995.04 points in midday deals.Frankfurt’s DAX 30 climbed 1.29 percent to 7,149.87 points, the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.98 percent to 4,059.71 points and the Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone companies won 0.92 percent to 2,984.92 nearing the half-way stage.
European markets had fallen on Tuesday, with London dragged down by news of a surprise contraction in British quarterly economic growth.
They rebounded on Wednesday “following a strong finish to the US trading session yesterday evening,” said Sean Power, an equity analyst at trading firm City Index.
“Traders put the strong final hour down to US investors flattening positions” before a key speech by U.S. President Barack Obama, in which he called for a freeze in federal discretionary spending. Read more at Yahoo News.….
