Europe midday: Shares rally after losses last week; Eyes on Musk decision

European shares were higher in the week before Christmas as Argentina celebrated a famous football World Cup win and Twitter investors waited to see if boss Elon Musk would step down as CEO after a poll of followers came down in favour of the move.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.48% at 0821 GMT. After last weeks data deluge and several rate hike decisions, traders are expecting a quieter few days before the festive break.

Energy stocks were higher on the back of rising oil prices driven by hopes of a recovery in demand from China after the country relaxed several strict Covid-19 control measures. BP and Shell were both gainers.

Meanwhile Twitter chief executive Musk launched a poll on Sunday asking users whether he should step down as head of the company, adding that he would abide by the result.

Just over 57% of 17.5 million voters had said that Musk should resign when the poll closed.

In other equity news, Freenet rose after Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the German-based telecom provider's stock to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com