RTRS: Europe stocks increase as oils continue to climb
European stocks rose by midday on Tuesday, with oil and gas shares adding most points to the index, continuing Monday's rise on the last full-day session in 2008 for most of the region's bourses.
At 1140 GMT the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 was up 0.8 percent at 817.01 points in thin trade ahead of the New Year break.
A number of European stock markets, including London and Euronext's Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam bourses, will be open for a half day on Dec. 31, while Tuesday will be the last trading session for the year for Germany's DAX .GDAXI, with trading ending at 1300 GMT and resuming on Friday, Jan 2.
The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares is on track to record a loss of about 46 percent in 2008, hit by a crisis in the credit market that sparked a sharp global economic slowdown.
"No one expected such a recession, such a crisis, and markets are braced for a tough first half of 2009 with high volatility," said Hans-Juergen Delp, investment strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Still, oil shares shrugged off lower crude prices and extended their previous day's rally. BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Total (TOTF.PA) added between 1.3 and 2 percent.
The price for U.S. crude oil CLc1, which hit a peak of $147 a barrel in July, has fallen about 59 percent in 2008. Crude prices are trading around the $40 mark.
"Only for the second half, tendencies of a recovery can be expected," Delp said. "You can see measures being taken everywhere, may it be government programmes or stimulus packages, so I think the comparison with (the crisis of) 1929 does not work."
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE gained 0.8 percent, while France's CAC .FCHI added 0.7 percent and Germany's DAX .GDAXI rose 1.6 percent.
The defensive pharmaceutical sector also rose, with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Novartis (NOVN.VX) up between 0.6 and 0.9 percent.
