Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

European stocks advanced following their longest weekly losing streak since October.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.5 percent to 339.72 at 8:08 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge fell 1 percent last week for a second weekly drop. It close down 3.7 percent from an almost seven-year high reached Dec. 5, posting its worst start to a year since 2008.

The Stoxx 600 lost 1.3 percent on Jan. 9 amid a slump in Spanish and Italian lenders. The IBEX 35 Index fell the most since September 2012 that day, closing at its lowest level since Oct. 16. At the same time, traders are buying up protection should Greece’s potential exit from the euro trigger a domino drop in Spanish and Italian stocks.

Equities ended lower on Jan. 9 after a person familiar with the matter said the European Central Bank is studying models for buying as much as 500 billion euros ($593 billion) of investment-grade assets, raising concern that won’t be enough to shore up the economy. Later in the day, a U.S. jobs report showed earnings for all employees unexpectedly declined.

Health-care stocks contributed the most to the Stoxx 600 advance today. Shire Plc rose 1.4 percent after agreeing to buy NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $5.2 billion. Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc climbed 2.1 percent after saying it will distribute its colchicine drug in the U.S. as a court rejected Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s motion to block sales of the gout-flares treatment.

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA rose 0.9 percent, while Aer Lingus Group Plc fell 3.8 percent. The company known as IAG SA, which owns British Airways, said the Irish carrier rejected a sweetened bid.