London: European stock markets rose on Tuesday, building on hefty gains won in the previous session, with the aviation and beverage sectors were in focus.
After an initial dip, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.31 percent to 6,318.45 points by mid-afternoon, shrugging off early losses to heavyweight mining stocks amid falling metals prices according to traders.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose 0.78 percent to 9,891.43 points and the Paris CAC 40 climbed 1.10 percent to 4,663.42.
Wall Street was also in positive territory as the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood 0.12 percent higher at 16,796.40 five minutes after the opening bell.
An unexpected resignation of the chief executive at chemical company DuPont, which surged 10.6 percent, lifted the Dow in opening trade Tuesday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq edged lower.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.08 percent to 1,985.41, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 0.14 percent to 4,774.39.
In foreign exchange, the euro climbed to $1.1205 from $1.1187 late on Monday in New York, with the US unit hit by growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will delay until 2016 its first rate-hike in years.
On Tuesday, European indices threw off "yet another slowdown-signalling figure out of Germany, in the form of falling factory orders", said Connor Campbell, analyst at traders Spreadex.
Official data showed that German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for goods in Europe's biggest economy, had slumped in August.
The month-on-month drop of 1.8 percent was the second consecutive month of decline, and missed analysts' forecasts.
The aviation sector flew into focus Tuesday as EasyJet confirmed its full-year profits outlook and on fallout from the Air France protest violence.
EasyJet was down 0.11 percent to 1,806 pence, while Air France-KLM was 0.2 percent ahead at 6.12 euros.
French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said that scenes of Air France executives fleeing an angry mob after having their shirts ripped off by striking workers were "unacceptable" and put the image of the country at risk.
With the shirt stripped off his back, the struggling airline's human resources manager Xavier Broseta had to escape over a fence with the help of security guards on Monday after announcing plans to cut 2,900 jobs.
Brewing bid announcement
In Tuesday trade, British brewing company SABMiller shed 2.99 percent to 3,651.50 pence after "it was revealed that the drinks giant turned down an informal offer from Anheuser-Busch InBev" alongside a disappointing trading update from SABMiller, said Campbell.
AB InBev dipped 0.27 percent to 98.11 euros.
SABMiller has snubbed the £66.4 billion ($101 billion, 90 billion euros) bid, arguing it was too low, Bloomberg News agency reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The initial offer was worth just over £40 per share, but some shareholders wanted closer to £45 a share, according to Bloomberg.
A potential deal would bring together AB InBev's Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois beers with SABMiller's Foster's, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell.
AFP
