European share markets edged higher on Monday, with investors catching up with last week’s late rally on Wall Street and market sentiment being boosted over the weekend. The main good news came on the virus front after Italy, France and Spain registered significantly lower deaths as well as new cases, which paves the way for an easing of the lockdowns in many areas. Investors obviously welcome the fact that nations are moving forward with reopening of their economies, but may want to make sure the peak has clearly passed and the risk of a second wave has been successfully mitigated and the virus contained before increasing their exposure to risk. We expect rising volatility this week as most investors switch their focus back to data ahead of a busy week which promises new monetary policies from the BoJ, ECB and the Fed as well as GDP figures from European nations and the US.
The Milan stock market is proving to be one of Monday’s best performers after Italy dodged having its rating downgraded by Standard & Poors. The FTSE-MIB Index remains inside its mid-term consolidation zone, which is 2,850 points wide, but did manage to clear the important short-term level of 17,000pts and is now challenging its first technical resistance at 17,200pts before the upper band of the trading range at 17,830pts.
