Most European stocks rose, with the equity benchmark heading for its biggest quarterly gain in three years, on optimism Spanish measures to reduce budget deficits will pave the way for the country’s bailout.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Cabinet yesterday approved a new tax on lottery winnings and a cut in ministries’ spending to shrink the euro area’s third-biggest budget deficit. The government set a 2013 target of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product, compared with a 6.3 percent goal for this year.
The Cabinet also approved using a pension reserve fund to meet an increase in retirement payments, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told reporters in Madrid before markets closed yesterday.
Cap Gemini rose 2.4 percent to 33.46 euros. Accenture, the world’s second-largest technology consulting company, said earnings for the fiscal year ending in August 2013 will be $4.22 to $4.30 a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $4.13.
Novo Nordisk advanced 0.6 percent to 921 kroner after saying Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved Tresiba, its insulin drug used in treating diabetes. The company expects to start selling the drug in Japan after price negotiations are completed.
FTSE 100 5,791.59 +12.17 +0.21%
CAC 40 3,433.59 -5.73 -0.17%
DAX 7,298.44 +8.42 +0.12%