A Tesco employee prepares the salad bar at a Tesco Extra supermarket in Watford, north of London. Shares in Tesco rose 1.60% yesterday to finish the day at 375 pence, as the Britain’s biggest retailer said it is in exclusive talks over combining its Chinese operations with those of China Resources Enterprise.


AFP/London

European markets closed higher yesterday, with mining stocks in particular receiving a boost from better-than-expected industrial output data from China, dealers said.
London’s FTSE 100 index, bolstered also by strong British export data, gained 0.82% to end the session at 6,583.39 points.
Frankfurt’s Dax 30 rose 0.24% to end at 8,338.31 points, while the Cac 40 in Paris gained 0.3% to 4,076.55 points.
“Whether investors consider the data reliable or otherwise there is no escaping the fact that the improvement has translated into renewed confidence that the Chinese economy may be stabilising, albeit at a lower level than previously,” CMC Markets UK analyst Michael Hewson said.
“This has translated into significant boost to the beaten down mining sector which has managed to trade at its highest levels in two months.”
Analysts said the figures pointed to a more stable outlook for China’s economy — seen as a key driver of global growth — after months of mounting pessimism.
Among the miners, Anglo American won 6.1% to 1,542.5 pence, Fresnillo increased 8.2% to 1,035 pence, Randgold shot up 6.8% to 4,722 pence and Rio Tinto added 5.0% to 3,167.5 pence.
The data came as Britain’s biggest retailer, supermarket chain Tesco, said it is in exclusive talks over combining its Chinese operations with those of China Resources Enterprise.
Tesco said the move was in line with the group’s strategy of seeking to profit from fast-growing economies, and comes as China seeks to balance export growth with domestic consumption.
Tesco said the proposed joint venture would create a business with annual sales of about £10bn ($15.5bn, €11.6bn).
Shares in Tesco rose 1.60% to finish the day at 375 pence.
Shares in Dutch telecom group KPN leapt by 16% to €2.32 in response to a bid for full control by Mexican group America Movil.
The euro fell back to $1.3338 from $1.3380 late in New York on Thursday.
The dollar also lost ground to ¥96.25 from ¥96.65 on Thursday, while sterling steadied against the euro at 86.02 pence, but fell against the dollar to $1.5508.
The ruble strengthened to €0.02284 and $0.03048 after the Russian central bank held off on cutting interest rates.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to $1,309 an ounce from $1,298.25 on Thursday.
Wall Street shares traded lower. In midday trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.81%, the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.50%, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shrank 0.49%.