ARM Holdings best on 100

Equities markets in Europe were higher Monday, with gains coming on a promise by Germany’s chancellor and France’s president that they will create a plan to recapitalize banks and find solutions to the region’s debt crisis as they said they will have the plan worked out by a G20 summit scheduled for 3 November.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.8 percent to 5,399 in London, while the FTSE 250 added 1.84 percent to 10,140.8 as chipmaker ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM) gained 6.58 percent to lead gains on the 100 and oil explorer and producer EnQuest (LSE: ENQ) was 8.61 percent higher as the best performer on the 250.

Other gainers in the mostly higher energy sector included Essar Energy (LSE: ESSR), which was up 4.71 percent and Premier Oil (LSE: PMO) with a gain of 3.3 percent after it said it began production at a project in Vietnam and after HSBC Holdings, Morgan Stanley and UBS all issued upgrades for the oil producer, while the worst of three decliners in the sector was wind turbine gearbox manufacturer Hansen Transmissions International (LSE: HSN), which was down 2.87 percent.

Miners were up, led by a gain of 5.35 percent for gold miner Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG), while the only decliner in the sector was African Barrick Gold, which was down by 1.12 percent.

Catering specialist Compass Group (LSE: CPG) was the worst performer on the 100, dropping 1.21 percent, and was one of just three decliners in the travel and leisure sector, where Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (LSE: BPTY) and Ladbrokes (LSE: LAD) were 2.12 percent and 0.75 percent lower respectively, while International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE: IAG) was the best performer in the travel and leisure sector as it added 3.68 percent.

Premier Foods (LSE: PMO) was the biggest decliner on the 250 and was down 12.24 percent and was also the worst performer in the food and beverage sector, while brewer SABMiller (LSE: SAB) added 2.41 percent as the best performer in the sector.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.6 percent to 962.8 while the IBEX added 1.07 percent to 8,892.4, the CAC-40 was 2.13 percent to 3,161.47 and the Dax gained 3.02 percent to 5,847.29.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw gains on optimism regarding the European debt crisis after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said over the weekend that they would work to stabilize the European economy, althought they did not give any details of their plan.

The Hang Seng was up 0.02 percent to 17,711.1 in Hong Kong whle South Korea’s Kospi added 0.38 percent to 1,766.44, Australia’s markets were higher as the Sydney Ordinaries gained 0.88 percent to 4,262.3 and the S&P/ASX200 was 0.92 percent higher to 4,201, Singapore’s Straits Times Index was up 1.06 percent to 2,668.3 and the Sensex added 2 percent to 16,557.2.

The exception was the Shanghai Composite, which was 0.61 percent lower to 2,344.79 after going back to work following a week off for holidays.

Tokyo’s markets were closed in observance of Health and Sports Day, while markets in Taiwan were also closed, in observance of National Celebration Day.

New York equities markets saw gains in early afternoon trade as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.46 percent to 11,376, while at the same time the S&P 500 had added 2.84 percent to 1,188.24 and the Nasdaq Composite was 2.99 percent to 2,553.5.

Crude oil and metals prices were higher as the US dollar weakened.

West Texas Intermediate crude was up $2.72 to $85.70 per barrel in midday trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent Crude added $2.93 percent to $108.81 per barrel at last report on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Gold added $34.70 to $1,670.50 per troy ounce at nearly 1 p.m. in New York, while silver was up $1.10 to $32.10 per troy ounce.

Copper was 10 cents higher to $3.38 per pound in New York trade and three-month contracts for copper gained $120 to $7,495 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, with the gains for copper coming on a decline in inventories of 4,575 tonnes in warehouses monitored by the LME and on hopes that demand will be helped if France and Germany can deliver on their promise of a plan to solve the region’s debt crisis.

Tags: Asia-Pacific equities, commodities, European equities, London equities, Wall Street