European stock markets closed higher

European stocks closed in positive territory, registering with the largest increase in two days for two weeks. Support index was upbeat corporate reports, as well as increased activity in mergers and acquisitions (M & A).

Growth also contributed to published statistics. German consumer confidence index stabilized in August, data showed on research group GfK on Wednesday. The forecast consumer sentiment index was 10.1 points, remaining unchanged from July. Evaluation coincided with expectations. The economic expectations index fell by 6.5 points to 18.4 in July. As a result, indicator lost almost 20 points in two months. Meanwhile, income expectations rose 1.4 points to 58.6. Earnings expectations in Germany were completely indifferent to international crises and events concerning Greece. At the same time, the sub-index measuring willingness to buy dropped to 55.4 in July 57 June.

A little influenced by the news that on Thursday, the stock market in Greece is not to trade, and the resumption of work on Friday is unlikely in view of the technical problems associated with the imposition of restrictions on local investors. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the Speaker of the Athens Stock Exchange.

It also became known that the European Central Bank on Wednesday upheld the scope of the program of emergency lending to Greek banks, as the Bank of Greece did not ask the ECB to increase it. Told informed source. During the previous two weeks, the ECB has increased the volume of emergency lending program to 900 million euros (995.6 million US dollars). It supports Greek banks afloat, which since early February effectively cut off from regular monetary operations of the ECB. The total volume of lending programs after last week's increase exceeded 90 billion euros.

A further increase in the index held back pending the outcome of the meeting of the US Federal Reserve. As expected, the Central Bank will not now make adjustments to the current monetary policy, but traders will be interested in the text of the statements contained therein and hints of further steps of the Central Bank. Add, Fed Chairman Janet Yellen will not hold a press conference following the meeting, also scheduled update of economic forecasts.

FTSE 100 6,631 +75.72 + 1.16% CAC 40 5,017.44 +40.12 + 0.81% DAX 11,211.85 +37.94 + 0.34%

Quotes Bayer AG and PSA Peugeot Citroen rose by more than 4% on good reporting. As it became known, the net profit of the German pharmaceutical group Bayer AG rose in April-June by 21% - to 1.15 billion euros, in line with analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said that in the first half of the year returned to a profitable level for the first time since 2011 due to higher prices, favorable changes in foreign exchange rates, and improve production efficiency.

Cost GlaxoSmithKline Plc rose 3.6% after the largest pharmaceutical UK reported a smaller reduction of the profit for the second quarter than analysts had expected.

Shares of Barclays Plc rose 1.9%, while Numericable-SFR SAS - by 3.2 percent, aided by positive corporate reports.

Italcementi SpA's share price soared by 49%. The fourth cement producer in the world of HeidelbergCement AG paid 1.67 billion euros for a 45% stake in the fifth-largest industry Italcementi.

Cost of Volkswagen AG fell by 2.3%, as the company lowered its global sales forecast against the background of a slowdown in China and the difficult situation in Russia and South America.

Quotes Man Group Plc rose 7% after the world's largest public hedge fund, said that by the end of the first half year profit exceeded analysts' expectations.