World stock markets bounce back on Greece bailout

Stock markets around world in make gains on hopes that €120bn EU rescue package means Greece avoids debt default Global stock markets bounced back on Friday after European Union leaders reached agreement on a €120bn (£105bn) EU bailout for Greece . Most Asian markets were up, with the Nikkei in Tokyo gaining 0.85% to 9678.71 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 1.6% to 22,115.24. The FTSE 100 index in London opened 75 points higher. On Thursday, it closed down 98.61 points at 5674.38 after downbeat comments on the state of the economy from the US Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke. European leaders agreed on Thursday night to launch a fresh bailout of Greece, assuming the country passes an austerity package next week. Britain is to be spared from taking part in the rescue after leaders accepted David Cameron’s argument that the bailout should be borne by the eurozone. The rescue will be provided by Greece’s “euro partners and the International Monetary Fund”, meaning that Britain is exempt from the European part of the package. Germany had been insisting that the bailout should be partly funded by all 27 EU members, but backed off. Without the final tranche of last year’s €110bn bailout – €12bn from the eurozone and the IMF – Greece would be broke by mid-July. Brent crude oil rebounded by more than a dollar to $108.70 a barrel on Friday morning, after tumbling 6% on Thursday when the International Energy Agency announced the release of 60m barrels of emergency oil supplies on the market in an attempt to stem soaring petrol and other energy prices. US crude climbed to $92.34 a barrel. It is only the third time in the 37-year history of the IEA that oil has been released in this way and follows repeated calls on Opec to turn on the taps and bring down the price of oil. European debt crisis Stock markets Greece Europe Europe Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.