|
 Shares in BG Group rose as much as 42 percent in early trade after
Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay that amount (47 billion pounds) for
its smaller rival, making it the biggest deal in the sector in more
than a decade.
Germany was the main exception, where shares slipped after data
showed that industrial orders surprisingly fell in February.
In early trading Europe's EuroFirst 300 index of leading shares was
up 0.3 percent at 1,617 points. This followed Tuesday's 1.6
percent rise, the market's biggest gain since Jan. 23.
Britain's FTSE 100, of which energy shares are a major component,
was up 0.6 percent at 7,002 points. Shares in Shell fell more than 2
percent but BP <BP.L> was up more than 4 percent.
"We have been buying the oil majors over the last couple of weeks.
There is a bit of weakness in Shell this morning due to the very
high premium that Shell is offering, but in the long-term, this does
look like creating a business that will be well-positioned within
the energy sector," said Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover
Investments.
Elsewhere, Vivendi is looking at a possible acquisition of pay-TV
group Sky, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a
deal that could cost the French media conglomerate up to 28 billion
pounds.
Following FedEx Corp's 4.4 billion euro ($4.8 billion) bid to buy
Dutch package delivery company TNT Express on Tuesday, investors
shunned the temptation to cash in on a decent run for Europe's main
indexes in recent days.
Earlier in Asia, Japanese stocks rose 0.8 percent to a fresh 15-year
high after the Bank of Japan's latest policy meeting. Some investors
were disappointed no fresh stimulus was announced, but with
inflation near zero expectations are high that more will come at its
next meeting.
Hong Kong and Chinese markets both hit seven-year peaks, while
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained
1.2 percent to its highest since mid-September.
Futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street too.
FED MINUTES IN FOCUS
In currency markets the dollar took a breather after rising more
than 1 percent on Tuesday, its biggest gain in almost a month.
The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.0870, sterling was up 0.6 percent at
$1.4895 and the dollar slipped a third of one percent against
the yen to 119.86 yen.
Markets continue to readjust expectations on the timing of the
Federal Reserve's first interest rate rise since June 2006. Last
Friday's weak jobs report for March prompted many observers to
strike June off as a potential date for "lift-off".
[to top of second column] |
Minutes from the Fed's last policy meeting released later on
Wednesday will be scrutinized closely for clues on the timing.
Reflecting the uncertainty, Goldman Sachs economists said they are
sticking with September but admit December is an increasingly "close
call".
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was one basis point lower
on Wednesday at 1.87 percent, while the comparable German yield was
two basis points lower at 0.16 percent after the 0.9 percent fall in
German industrial orders in February.
European bond traders will also pay close attention to demand at
Germany's two-year, zero percent bond auction later on Wednesday,
and headlines from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's visit to
Russia.
Athens has not asked Moscow for financial aid, a Greek government
spokesman said on Wednesday, a day before Greece is due to due to
repay a loan tranche of around 450 million euros to the
International Monetary Fund.
In commodities, oil pared recent gains after Saudi Arabia reported
record production of 10.3 million barrels per day in March, a figure
the country's oil minister said was unlikely to fall by much.
U.S. May crude fell 2.5 percent to $52.71 a barrel while Brent shed
1.6 percent to $58.14.
Gold got a boost from the weaker dollar and edged up a couple of
bucks to $1,210 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Hugh Lawson; To
read Reuters Global Investing Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting;
for the MacroScope Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope;
for Hedge Fund Blog Hub click on http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub)
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