European Stocks Advance After Russia Calls End to Drills

By Namitha Jagadeesh

European stocks rose, following U.S. equities higher, after a report that Russian war planes have finished military exercises near Ukraine’s border. U.S. index futures and Asian shares also advanced.
Balfour Beatty Plc increased 1.6 percent after rejecting a revised merger proposal from Carillion Plc. Banco Popolare SC jumped 7.4 percent after the Italian lender unexpectedly posted a profit in the second quarter.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.9 percent to 327.73 at 8:30 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge fell 2.1 percent last week, posting its first back-to-back weekly losses since March, amid crises in Iraq, Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.2 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied 1.2 percent.
European stocks pared a decline decline on Aug. 8 after the RIA Novosti news service reported that Russia wants to de-escalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine by mediating between Kiev and the separatists.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has returned its armed forces to their bases, Interfax reported late on Aug. 8. The report said troops and planes had
finished military drills held at the Ashuluk firing range in the Astrakhan region. The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 1.2 percent on Aug. 8, its biggest gain in five months.
Balfour Beatty gained 1.6 percent to 241 pence. The U.K. construction company rejected Carillion’s revised offer, saying a merger between the two could undermine its sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a New York-based business that specializes in engineering. Balfour Beatty had abandoned a round of merger talks in late July because Carillion wanted to include the unit in the deal.
Separately, Balfour Beatty reported first-half underlying earnings of 3.9 pence per share and an order book of 13 billion pounds ($22 billion).

Banco Popolare

Banco Popolare soared 7.4 percent to 10.81 euros after reporting a second-quarter profit of 25 million euros ($33.5 million). Analysts had predicted a loss of 12.8 million euros.
DKSH Holding AG (DKSH), which advises and helps businesses expand in Asia, rallied 7.1 percent to 68.25 Swiss francs after posting first-half net income of 91.3 million francs ($101 million). That exceeded the 87.9 million-franc forecast of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.