Europe Shares Rise After ECB as Egypt Yields Fall; Gilts Jump

Europe Shares Rise After ECB as Egypt Yields Fall; Gilts Jump
Business & Markets 2013
Written by Bloomberg
Thursday, 04 July 2013 20:26

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- European shares snapped a two-day decline, led by Portugal, after the region’s central bank kept interest rates on hold today. Egypt’s bond yields fell by the most on record and the nation’s equities rallied after the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.7 percent to 287.45 at 12:46 p.m. in London, with trading 5 percent less than the average of the past 30 days. Portugal’s main equity gauge jumped 2.7 percent and the cost of protecting the country’s debt against default fell from a more than six-month high.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.4 percent with U.S. markets shut today for the Independence Day holiday. U.K. bonds gained while the pound weakened after the Bank of England signaled a growing concern about rising bond yields and volatile markets. The yield on Egypt’s bond due April 2020 tumbled 144 basis points to a two-week low of 9.34 percent.

The European Central Bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent, matching economists’ forecasts. Paulo Portas, the Portuguese minister whose resignation this week threatened to bring down the government, meets Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to try to overcome differences on budget policy.

Adly Mansour, the chief justice of Egypt’s constitutional court, was sworn in as interim president after the army ousted Mursi in a move it said aimed to restore stability.

“We’ve seen slightly more positive tones out of Portugal in the last hours, which gives markets some relief,” Witold Bahrke, who helps oversee $55 billion as a senior strategist at PFA Pension A/S in Copenhagen, wrote in an e-mail.

“This supports markets for now, and probably some expectations about a dovish ECB are building ahead of today’s press conference. Volume is thin out there since the U.S. is closed.”