Europe midday: Lenders' shares pace advance as infections slow, governments ease lockdowns

Stocks on the Continent were moving higher led by lenders' shares as the number of new Covid-19 infections continued to slow on both sides of the Atlantic, even as the world's health watchdog warned of the epidemic's expansion in the southern hemisphere and Eastern Europe.

According to Italy's civil protection service, the number of daily new infections rose by just 1,739 on Monday, the smallest increase since 10 March.

Stateside meanwhile, the daily rate of increase in new cases fell to 2.3%, the slowest pace since 1 April, and an increasing number of states were moving to gradually ease lockdowns.

As of 1157 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 1.59% higher to 340.77, alongside a jump of 2.47% to 17,811.10 for the FTSE Mibtel.

Shares of lenders were doing especially well, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge 4.42% higher.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were up 0.94% higher at $20.18 barrel on the ICE.

Nonetheless, some analysts were wary, with Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank pointing out that the latest declines in global rates of Covid-19 linked infections and deaths were not falling as quickly as they had risen, nor as fast as seen in China or South Korea.

"Rates continue to slow, but at a decreasing pace. Curves clearly continue to flatten but new cases/fatalities are not falling as quickly as they rose or as they did in China and South Korea," Reid said.

"In a week where we’ll likely to hear a lot more about exit strategies, it feels from our numbers that Western economies are likely to start re-opening when they still have new cases emerging."

INSEE's index of French consumer confidence held up better than expected in April, printing at 95.0 after a reading of 103.0 for March (consensus: 83,0), but only due to a rise in a sub-index for expected inflation which appeared to be tracking the expected cost for the goods in greatest demand.

Meanwhile, expectations for unemployment and personal finances on the other hand suffered very large declines.

Santander stock was up 4% even after the lender posted a record €3.9bn of provisions during the first quarter that saw its profits crater 82%.

Lufthansa shares were active too, as the airline negotiated an €8bn package with the German state amid reports that it might file for court protection if it cannot clinch an agreement.