Shares rise as investors speculate Trump dump is overdone

US and European stocks pushed higher after financial firms rebounded from a six-week low as investors speculated selling sparked by US policy uncertainty had gone too far.

The FTSE 100 in London rose by 0.7 per cent as sterling weakened, while the Iseq was up by almost 0.4 per cent.

Dublin

Travel software company Datalex rose by more than 1 per cent, after it announced strong results and boosted its dividend by 25 per cent. The stock was up 3.6 per cent by lunchtime, but fell back after an afternoon sales flurry.

Bank of Ireland also rose by 1 per cent, on a strong day for European banks generally.

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Glanbia was among the strongest performers on the Iseq on Tuesday, up 2.3 per cent. The company has a strong consumer products division in the United States, where optimism is holding.

Paper products company Smurfit Kappa also put in a strong performance, up 2.2 per cent.

London

Booker Group fell 0.9 per cent after two of Tesco's largest shareholders urged other investors to join them in opposing Tesco's £3.7 billion (€4.3 billion) bid for the food wholesaler.

Tesco shares ended the day up 1.25p at 191.2p amid news that it would take a £235 million (€271 million) hit after reaching an agreement with authorities over an accounting scandal that will also see it make a hefty compensation payout to investors.

Wolseley shares jumped 247p to 5,130p after the Plumb Center owner announced plans to rename itself as Ferguson, and pull out of the Nordics.

Ladbrokes Coral shares fell 2.3p to 133p. It came as the bookmaker reported a £213.3 million loss for 2016 after it was hit by the costs of its merger with Coral.

Shares in Aviva rose 10p to 533p amid reports that the insurance giant is looking to offload Friends Provident International (FPI).

Thomas Cook fell 3.45 to 85.9p despite news that the travel firm was seeing "early signs" of a recovery in Turkey and Egypt after terrorist attacks.

The AA soared 14.7p to 270.5p after reporting the first rise in membership in eight years, as digital investments helped stem a near decade of declines.

Europe

Auto stocks rose 1.6 per cent, with gains in Continental and Volkswagen helping Germany's DAX index end at its highest since April 2015, up 1.3 per cent.

Tenaris was a standout among the gainers, with investors citing comments from the group's chief executive who raised forecasts for the oil and gas tubes market, fuelling talk of possible earnings upgrades.

Portuguese oil company EDP rose 4.2 per cent after it said it would buy the rest of its renewable energy subsidiary EDP Renovaveis. Portugal’s largest company also agreed the sale of its Spanish gas distribution network Naturgas.

EDPR jumped 10.1 per cent on the news, helping Portugal’s stock index outperform European peers, up 2.7 per cent.

Dufry, the Swiss airport retailer, gained 3.5 per cent after a report said Chinese conglomerate HNA wants to buy a stake to extend Dufry's reach in China.

Banco Popular was up 3.2 per cent after a newspaper report said its new head was in talks to sell the lender's property portfolio and a stake to Libra Group.

New York

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher with financials, energy and materials gaining more than 1 per cent. Three sectors were flat.

The S&P 500 financial sector jumped 1.16 per cent, led by Bank of America. Gains in Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan boosted the Dow.

Apple’s 1.3 per cent gain made it the top stock on the S&P and the Nasdaq, shortly after hitting an all-time high of $142.87.

General Motors rose 3.2 per cent to $35.85 after activist investor David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital urged the carmaker to split its stock into two classes.

Tesla rose 2.8 per cent to $277.82 after disclosing that Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings had taken a 5 per cent passive stake.

– (Additional reporting: PA/Reuters/Bloomberg)