BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Stocks closed broadly higher in major European markets on Tuesday as investors remained hopeful about the U.S. and China signing a peace deal this week. Oil prices fell sharply amid prospects of reopening of the Strait of Hormuz sometime soon.
Investors also looked ahead to the monetary policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank.
According to reports, the U.S. and Iran are likely to formally sign a peace agreement on Friday, leaving a 60-day window for negotiations toward a final agreement.
Brent crude futures dropped to $78.45 a barrel, losing more than 5.5%.
The pan European Stoxx 600 ended up by 0.25%. The UK market's FTSE 100 climbed 0.61%, Germany's DAX edged up 0.07% and France's CAC 40 closed 0.75% up. Switzerland's SMI settled with a gain of 0.35%.
Among other markets in Europe turned in a mixed performance. Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Türkiye closed higher.
Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Russia ended weak, while Finland and Iceland closed flat.
In the UK market, shares from communications, financial, healthcare, mining and consumer sectors had a good outing. Technology and retail stocks traded weak.
Endeavour Mining, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Scottish Mortgage, Persimmon, Convatec Group, Natwest Group, BAE Systems and Fresnillo gained 2%-3%.
Games Workshop, HSBC Holdings, Barratt Redrow, 3i Group, IMI, Hiscox, United Utilities, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, AutoTrader Group and Croda International gained 1.3%-2%.
BT Group shed about 2.7%. Associated British Foods, Antofagasta and Relx closed lower by 1.3%-1.7%.
In the German market, Gea Group climbed more than 5% following a rating upgrade of the stock by Deutsche Bank. Munich RE, Deutsche Post, Qiagen, Hannover Rueck, Allianz, Siemens and Siemens Healthineers gained 1%-1.5%.
RWE, Zalando, Infineon, Brenntag, Heidelberg Materials, Adidas and Mercedes-Benz closed lower by 1%-2.2%.
In the French market, Publicis Groupe, Schneider Electric, Safran, Legrand and Hermes International gained 2.1%-2.6%.
Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, Capgemini, BNP Paribas, LVMH, AXA, Vinci and Kering also moved notably higher.
STMicroelectronics fell more than 3% after the chipmaker announced plans to offer $1.5 billion of convertible bonds and redeem early $750 million of outstanding convertible bonds due 2027.
Renault closed lower by about 3.4%. Edenred, Stellantis, Engie, ArcelorMittal and Thales also ended notably lower.
In economic news, a report from the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) said Germany's ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment rose 20.7 points to 10.5 in June, its first positive reading since the war in the Middle East shook confidence in March, and beat market expectations of -6.0.
Meanwhile, the current economic situation assessment worsened slightly to -81, below the expected -78.
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