European stocks continued to rise on Friday as supporting policies in the US and Europe allayed concerns about a potential global financial crisis, but the index was expected to see its second consecutive weekly decline, according to Reuters.
At 0915 GMT, the STOXX 600 index for all of Europe had up 0.7 percent thanks to a significant rebound in oil and gas equities.
After a $30 billion bailout by major US banks for troubled lender First Republic Bank, banks saw a 1.1 percent increase.
The rescue effort comes less than a day after the troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse secured an urgent $54 billion central bank loan to support its liquidity.
Early gains in Credit Suisse shares were erased, and the stock was down 5.8%. They had increased by 19% on Thursday.
According to Danni Hewson, head of financial research at AJ Bell, “the steps by the US large banks to come in and bail out First Republic is also being perceived as a move to ease investor worries, basically to stop the dominoes from falling.
Spain’s and Italy’s lender-heavy indices saw gains of 0.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, but they were still expected to post significant weekly losses.
Energy stocks increased by 2.6 percent as oil prices rose following a meeting between Saudi Arabia and Russia that calmed the markets and was aided by forecasts of robust Chinese demand.
After some fluctuation, the STOXX 600 index closed Thursday 1.2 percent higher as relief for Credit Suisse outweighed worries about the significant 50-basis-point (bp) interest rate rise by the European Central Bank.
In the meantime, Goldman Sachs reduced its prediction for an increase in interest rates by the ECB in May to 25 bps.
Sanofi SA increased its share price by 0.3 percent after announcing plans to slash US list pricing for Lantus, its most prescribed insulin medicine, by 78% starting in 2019. Similar actions by competitors Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Co. came after this.