Sentiment remains positive on Europe stock markets

The world’s leading stock markets rallied yesterday, with Wall Street climbing to new records, although a rebound in the pound pushed London’s FTSE 100 index into loss.
The S&P 500 added to a record high set on Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was also above its record close.
“It appears that the momentum trade is back again,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare in a client note, describing “a market that seemingly has no inclination to dwell on the negatives”.
The Dow was up 0.6% at 18,334.31 points in late morning trade, above its all-time closing high of 18,312.39 set in May 2015.
Meanwhile the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7%.
In European trading, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 surged 1.3% and the Paris CAC 40 jumped 1.6% in value.
However London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index ended the day down a marginal 0.03%, mostly due to the pound shooting back above $1.30 thanks to the unexpectedly quick selection of Theresa May as the new conservative leader taking over as Britain’s prime minister today.
“Theresa May’s virtual ‘coronation’ as prime minister has delivered a boost to the pound as the clouds of uncertainty following the Brexit vote start to disperse,” said market analyst Neil Wilson at ETX Capital.
But analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets said “the certainty of Theresa May stepping into the top job in UK politics ahead of schedule has had the perhaps unintuitive effect of weighing on UK stocks.”
The slump of the pound to a 31-year low had helped insulate the FTSE 100 from the slump that hit other markets, and its rebound was now weighing on the market.
Meanwhile Milan’s main share price index rose more than 3% at one point after reassuring comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel on finding a solution to recapitalise Italian banks and avoid a crisis.
Shares in Unicredit surged over 13%, boosted also by selling a stake in its online brokerage service, netting €328mn  ($364mn) which will be used to boost its core capital.
In Germany, automakers raced forward after better-than-expected results for Daimler and strong sales for BMW.
Shares in Mercedes-maker Daimler shifted up 4.4% and BMW accelerated 4.7%.
In Asia, Tokyo’s main index yesterday led a region-wide markets rally for a second session running, fuelled by hopes of more central bank stimulus and following last week’s blockbuster US jobs report.
Tokyo’s Nikkei index ended yesterday with a gain of 2.5%, adding to the four-percent surge clocked up Monday.
Share prices were boosted by the yen’s retreat against the dollar since a huge win for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s coalition in weekend elections.
Abe said on Monday his government would draw up new measures in his latest push to kick start Japan’s torpid economy.
In London, the FTSE 100 down 0.03% at 6,680.69 points; Frankfurt — DAX 30 up 1.3% at 9,964.07 points and Paris — CAC 40 up 1.6% at 4,331.38 points at the close yesterday.