LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets rose for a second straight day on Monday, with resource firms tracking commodity prices higher and investors welcoming the latest round of earnings.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (XX:SXXP) added 0.4% to close at 334.56, after posting the biggest weekly gain of 2014 last Friday. U.S. markets were closed for Presidents Day.
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Among notable movers in the pan-European benchmark, shares of Hammerson PLC (UK:HMSO) gained 3.1% after the property-development and investment company posted a rise in full-year profit on strong demand for retail property.
Mining firms were also among gainers, as most metals prices headed north. Shares of Polymetal International PLC (UK:POLY) gained 4% and Glencore Xstrata PLC (UK:GLEN) picked up 1.8%. Randgold Resources Ltd. (UK:RRS) added 1.7% after Citigroup lifted the company to neutral from sell. The analysts said valuations for gold miners have improved as the price of gold is stabilizing.
On a more downbeat note, shares of ThyssenKrupp AG (DE:TKA) lost 1.8% after Citigroup cut the industrial conglomerate to sell from neutral. The analysts said the stock's recent performance, up 22% over the past two months, "suggests the market has grown increasingly comfortable with the concept of the stock as a diversified capital-goods story."
"While it could be an alluring long-term proposition, returns over the medium term are likely to remain depressed by the capital-intensive nature of the low-margin steel business," they said.
Italian politics were also in the spotlight on Monday after Prime Minister Enrico Letta resigned last Friday, following a call from Matteo Renzi, the head of Italy's largest party, for a new government to take power. Renzi is now poised to become Italy's youngest prime minister, with President Giorgio Napolitano formally asking the center-left leader to form a government. Renzi, 39, has pushed for quicker implementation of economic reforms and analysts broadly see him as a positive for Italian assets.
TRADING STRATEGIES: february
Terrence Horan/MarketWatch • See full Trading Strategies report /conga/story/2014/02/trading-strategies.html 295496 On Friday, Moody's Investors Service raised its outlook for Italy's government bond rating to stable from negative. The FTSE MIB index (XX:FTSEMIB) gained 0.1% to 20,459.65 in Monday's action. The yield on 10-year Italian government bonds (IT:10YR_ITA) fell 6 basis points to 3.62% according to electronic trading platform Tradeweb.
Elsewhere, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX) added 1.1% to 6,736.00, France's CAC 40 index (FR:PX1) fell 0.1% to 4,335.17, and Germany's DAX 30 index (DX:DAX) slipped 0.1% to 9,656.76.
Shares of Bouygues SA (FR:EN) lost 0.8% in Paris after the construction and telecom conglomerate said it has written down the value of its investment in Alstom SA (FR:ALO) by 1.4 billion euros ($1.92 billion).
Outside the major indexes, shares of Yara International ASA (NO:YAR) lost 2.8% after UBS cut the Norwegian fertilizer firm to neutral from buy, with the analysts citing an unexpected rise in maintenance-capital expenditures.
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