EDF, Infineon outlooks help buoy European shares

London — European shares edged higher on Tuesday, helped by a batch of strong corporate updates, including from French utility group EDF and German chip-maker Infineon.

 

Both companies raised their full-year outlook after a solid showing in the first half of the year.

 

EDF rose 5.7 percent and Infineon was up 4 percent to be the top risers on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which was up 0.2 percent at 1,208.79 points.

 

Banking stocks curbed gains on the index, falling 0.5 percent after Barclays announced a larger-than-expected rights issue at a discount of 44 percent to its closing share price on Monday.

 

"That's quite a heavy discount to the current share price and a larger than expected fund raising exercise which will put pressure on Barclays and the rest of the sector," Ronnie Chopra, a strategist at TradeNext, said.

 

"A sharp fall (in Barclays) yesterday in anticipation and no doubt this will continue today." — Reuters