Europe Rallies on Bargain Hunting

Ivaylo
23 May, 2006
Frankfurt

The slight recovery in New York and the less steep decline of Asian bourses came as a much relished relief to the oil and mining companies in Europe, helping the region to a good start Tuesday. Oil prices soared again, due to fears starting to mount of a severe hurricane on the way. London

[R]6:30AM European stocks bounce back on bargain hunting.[/R]
On the corporate front in early trading, Statoil, the Norwegian oil producer, advanced 4.6%, and Norsk Hydro, oil and metal corporation, edged 4% up. Likewise, Saipem, Italian oilfield group, climbed 3.3% and Atlas Copco, Swedish toolmaker advanced 4.4%. Euronext, European stock exchange operator, added 3.5% up, in the wake of Deutsche Börse, its peer, revealing a cash and stock merger plan. Technology stocks also performed well, ASML, Dutch maker of memory chips, climbed 5.1% and Telenor, Norwegian telecom, gained 2.7%.

Crude oil for July delivery advanced 34 cents to $70.30 a barrel and London July Brent gained 35 cents at $69.70. Gold hit a high of $663.30 an ounce and was quoted at $661.50/652.30. The dollar gained against the euro. The euro bought $1.2834, lower than $1.2864 late Monday. The British pound slipped to $1.8821 from US$1.8863 on Monday, though the dollar edged down to 111.44 Japanese yen from 111.50.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver advanced slightly on Monday.[/R]
June gold advanced 20 cents to $657.70 an ounce, from a low of $636.80, which had been its bottom price since April 28. July silver finished up 7 cents at $12.43 after hitting a low of $11.88 overnight, its lowest level since April 25. Platinum closed $28.80 down to $1,284.60 an ounce, while palladium shed $10.05 to $341.75 an ounce. July copper finished at $3.4615, 0.75 cent lower, after hitting as low as $3.2760 per pound in after-hours trade.

Crude oil closed 70 cents higher at $69.23 a barrel. up 70 cents on the day, while gasoline finished up 1.90 cents at $2.0574 a gallon. Coffee futures hit new 5-month lows before industry buying stopped the retreat. July finished 1.05 cents down at 99.6 cents a pound. Raw sugar in foreign ports closed 0.03 cent down at 16.39 cents a pound.