Europe close: Stocks finish at session highs despite virus fears
Stocks on the Continent finished at their best levels of the session despite the still increasing number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
The number of reported cases of the 2019 n-Cov had climbed to 20,600 cases even as China's President Xi Jinping reportedly told a meeting of top leaders that the outbreak would directly impact social stability and the governor of the Bank of Japan indicated that the central bank may act to reduce the hit to its economy.
"The rebound in stocks in mainland China overnight influenced traders in Europe," said David Madden, senior market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
"But the markets have yet to recoup all the ground that was given up last week, so traders haven't totally shaken off the health fears."
By the end of trading, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was ahead by 1.64% to 418.47, alongside a rise of 1.81% to 13,281.74 for the German Dax while the Italian FTSE Mibtel clocked in with an advance of 1.64% to 23,844.85.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange's composite index finished 1.34% higher to 2,783.29 and South Korea's Kospi added 1.84% to 2,157.90.
To take note of perhaps, in its latest update, the World Health Organisation said that no new countries had reported cases of 2019nCoV in the last 24 hours.
Ambu A/S topped the leaderboard for the Stoxx 600, as investors continued to seek out companies involved in efforts against coronavirus and the company, which manufactures anesthesia, respiratory devices and face masks posted better-than-expected first quarter numbers.
Stock in Umicore, which helps Tesla recyle its battery packs, was also was wanted.
Telecom groups Altice and Iliad meanwhile were boosted by upgrades out of Exane BNP Paribas to 'outperform'.
Belgian biotech outfit Galapagos NV, in which US-listed outfit Gilead Sciences held a 25.8%, also found a bid.
French IT outfit Atos was another big gainer after it emerged that it had offloaded a 13.1% stake in Worldline for roughly €1.5bn at €61.5 apiece.
Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena was 6% higher on the back of its latest results, but
Carmaker Ferrari skidded 2% after posting fourt quarter adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation that came in a tad below analysts' forecasts at €333.0m.
The economic spotlight on Tuesday fell on Spain, as the new centre-left government approved a 5.5% increase in the country's minimum wage to €950, amid promises to revamp the labour market reforms undertaken in 2012.
That was on top of a 22.3% hike in the minium wage to €900 a month enacted by the Socialist government that was in power at the end of 2018 ahead of the next-to-last general elections.
Also on Tuesday, Spain's labour ministry reported that the ranks of the unemployed in Spain reportedly had swelled by 90,248 in January, the largest increase for that month since January 2015, when they rose by 77,000.
According to Eurostat, Eurozone producer prices were unchanged from the month before in December and 0.7% lower in comparison to a year ago (consensus: 0.8%).