(MENAFN- AFP) Europe's main stock markets rallied Tuesday, recording a second day of gains on hopes of a deal being struck for the renegotiation of Greece's debt.
The Greek stock market surged by more than eight percent after Athens elaborated on its plans to shake up Greece's huge international bailout.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 1.16 percent to stand at 6,8612.15 points in midday deals.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 index climbed 1.20 percent to 10,958.10 points and in Paris the CAC 40 won 1.26 percent to stand at 4,685.78 compared with Monday's close.
The euro gained to $1.1351 from $1.1343 late in New York late on Monday.
"Equity markets have jumped as the prospect of a Greek default has dwindled for the time being, as the country's finance minister has laid out a number of options for debt restructuring," said David Madden, market analyst at IG trading group.
Greece's radical new leaders flew into Rome Tuesday seeking to build support for new proposals aimed at ending a stand-off with the country's creditors and its European Union partners.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the leftist-dominated government in Athens would be making proposals for "a menu of debt swaps" that would avoid the need for any of the country's mountain of foreign debt to be written off.
"Greece's problems are far from over but as far as the markets are concerned calm has been restored," Madden added.
On the corporate front Tuesday, the energy sector won support from signs of recovery in the oil market.
"The bounce in oil has boosted shares in the commodity sector and this theme could continue for some time yet," noted Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com.
"Oil prices have rebounded strongly over the past three trading sessions on signs that producers are cutting back output."
Shares in BP jumped by 2.65 percent to 449.30 pence in Tuesday trading, lifted also by better-than-expected earnings revealed by the British energy group.
The company meanwhile joined sector peers in announcing that it plans to slash investment this year as the recent plunge in crude prices bite into group profits.
Spending in 2015 was expected to total about $20 billion (17.6 billion euros), down from a previous guidance of $24-26 billion, BP said in a results statement.
And smaller British rival BG Group revealed it would cut investment by about $3.0 billion this year.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.