Europe close: Stocks start week on front foot as Mideast tensions ebb

(Sharecast News) - Most European bourses started the week in good form with investors breathing a sigh of relief over the reduced tensions in the Middle East, at least for the moment.

Nevertheless, they were also gearing up for what was scheduled to be a heavy week of corporate results in the States that might decide whether the correction in stocks had further to run, especially in the technology space.

The Stoxx 600 index was up 0.6% to 502.31 with all major bourses higher, save for Milan's FTSE Mib which gave back 0.58% to end the day at 33m724.82.

Euro/dollar was tad a higher at 1.0660, crude oil and Bunds were little changed alongside but gold futures dropped by a whopping 3%.

"The pulse of positivity comes in the absence of fresh retaliatory attacks by Israel or Iran and the US flexing its funding muscle and passing a crucial ($61bn) aid package for Ukraine," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.

Worth noting, on Sunday ECB Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the central bank would not be kept from cutting rates in June due to uncertainty in oil markets.

In equity news, Galp Energia surged 21% after the Portuguese firm said that the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia could have at least 10bn barrels of oil.

'Lord of the Rings' video game maker Embracer was up 7% after the Swedish firm announced it was splitting into three standalone listed entities.

Alstom was up 3% after the French train manufacturer agreed to sell its North American conventional rail signalling business to German rail systems manufacturer Knorr-Bremse for around €630m.