European Markets Rise On EU Summit Hopes

The French CAC 40 index was up 0.81 percent or 27.62 points to 3416.90.  Shares of Vivendi SA rose 1.99 percent and shares of Total SA gained 0.83 percent.

London’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.12 percent or 6.87 points to 5800.19. Shares of Tate & Lyle PLC advanced 1.30 percent and shares of GKN PLC were up 0.67 percent.

The German DAX 30 index advanced 0.39 percent or 28.20 points to 7260.69. Shares of SAP AG rose 0.81 percent and shares of Bayer AG gained 0.60 percent.

Spain's IBEX 35 was up 0.26 percent or 20.20 points to 7672.60. Shares of Indra Sistemas SA rose 2.24 percent and shares of Bankia SA gained 1.83 percent.

Market players continue to hope that there will be progress from the side of Spanish government on officially asking for bailout from the European Central Bank. In addition, there is the expectation of imminent announcement of the next bailout tranche for Greece which will in turn help reduce the financial instability faced by the euro zone.

Investors are focusing on the outcome of the EU Council meeting. “Spain and Greece will obviously rank high in European officials’ agenda. However, any concrete decisions look highly unlikely at this stage. Another key topic will be the single banking supervision and other features of the banking union,” Credit Agricole said in a note.

Market participants sense that the continued delay by Spain in applying for a bailout and, hence triggering the ECB’s new bond buying plan, has not helped facilitate any improvement in its economic and fiscal outlook. Markets players feel that Spain’s procrastination will end soon with activity indicators continuing to weaken and pointing to an increasingly deep recession.