(Bloomberg) -- European equities climbed the most this month, led by banking and oil shares, as Italian and U.K. stocks advanced on positive political developments.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 1.3 percent. The FTSE 100 Index increased 1.2 percent and Italy’s FTSE MIB jumped 3.1 percent. HSBC Holdings Plc gained 2.7 percent, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA surged 6 percent and UniCredit rose 6.1 percent. BP Plc, Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc rose as Brent oil recovered from last week’s declines.
After the European Union agreed to a Brexit deal, investors will be carefully watching how the proposal goes down in the U.K. Parliament. Italian assets rallied, giving a boost to the banking stocks, after the populist government said it was looking to change its deficit target that is in breach of the European Union’s spending rules.
“Depressed market sentiment should continue to receive a boost as a life beyond Italy’s budget scrap with the European commission and even Brexit start to take shape. We continue to see the underlying trends in the European economy as less fragile than portrayed by recent data,” William Hobbs, head of investment strategy at Barclays Investment Solutions in London, said by email.
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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