European stocks close higher

European stocks ended Monday higher after hitting new record highs.

Investors were buoyed by a regional election win for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party and extended oil output cuts, though global security concerns continued to weigh on markets after a troublesome weekend.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.09 percent higher. Markets had opened to new intraday highs for the FTSE and the DAX.

Travel and leisure and retail stocks were among some of the worst performers as pressure built from corporate earning results. Tui was down 4.7 percent after reporting a second-quarter underlying EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortization) loss of 177.7 million euros ($194.2 million). Meanwhile, Next and Pandora were all down by more than 1 percent.

Technology stocks closed slightly higher as cybersecurity firms benefited from a global ransomware attack that reverberated over the weekend, impacting more than 200,000 computers in 150 countries. Inside Secure and F-Secure rose more than 6 percent and 3 percent respectively.

Elsewhere, basic resources and oil and gas led the gains after Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to extend crude oil output cuts until March 2018 in their latest bid to boost flailing oil prices. Oil prices spiked on the announcement with Brent Crude trading at $52.15 dollars per barrel, up by 2.5 percent.

Oil giants OMV and Tullow Oil were among the best performers in the European benchmark, up 7 percent and 3 percent respectively.

In other news, France’s newly inaugurated President Emmanuel Macron has chosen the right-wing politician Edouard Philippe as the new prime minister, as the centrist tries to gather political support from different parties. The political momentum has led French authorities to announce a 31-year government bond.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite hit fresh record highs on Monday as gains in large-cap tech and energy stocks lifted the indexes.

Source: CNBC