European Shares Rise As Banks Gain On Rate Hike Expectations

(RTTNews) - European stocks rose on Tuesday as investors sought bargains following two days of declines.

A retreat in U.S. Treasury yields and gains in U.S. stock futures on expectations of more stimulus measures in China boosted investor sentiment.

Banks were seeing broad-based gains on expectations that they would benefit from higher interest rates.

After a number of ECB officials spoke in favor of rate hikes, traders are now pricing in more than a two-thirds chance of a 75-basis-point move at the central bank's September 8 policy meeting.

Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC Holdings surged 2-3 percent.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6 percent to 425.14 after falling 0.8 percent on Monday.

The German DAX gained 1.3 percent, France's CAC 40 index added 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent.

Adevinta shares soared 16 percent after the world's largest classified ads company reported strong Q2 results and confirmed targets for core markets.

Norway's Aker Solutions jumped almost 12 percent after an announcement that it would form a subsea engineering joint venture with Schlumberger.

German energy company Uniper rose nearly 2 percent after saying it had asked more financial help from the German government.

Sanofi gained about 1 percent. The U.S. FDA has granted priority review to the French drug maker and Sweden's SOBI efanesoctocog alfa (BIVV001) to treat people with hemophilia A.

AstraZeneca fell 2.2 percent in London despite the company receiving approval for its Evusheld COVID-19 treatment in Japan.

Bunzl slumped 5 percent. The distribution and outsourcing firm raised its 2022 group operating margin outlook after posting a rise in earnings for the first-half.

In economic releases, the European Commission said that its economic sentiment indicator declined to 97.6 in August from 98.9 in July, the lowest reading since February 2021.

Eurozone's final consumer confidence index held at -24.9 in August - matching expectations.