LONDON — European stock markets were on the upswing in midmorning trading on Monday, with the CAC 40 in Paris leading the way.
The French market was up 2.6 percent to 4,575.87, followed by Milan’s FTSE MIB, which advanced 2.1 percent to 21,841.35. The DAX in Frankfurt and the FTSE 100 in London were both up 1.9 percent, to 9,735.70 and to 6,243.59 respectively.
The euro traded at $1.12, while the pound fetched $1.52 and the Swiss franc equaled $1.03 at 10:15 a.m. CET.
Retail and luxury stocks were also on the rise, with the morning’s biggest gainers including Italian clothing manufacturer Aeffe, 4.1 percent to 1.53 euros; Inditex, 3.1 percent to 31.14 euros; Unilever, 5.5 percent to 36.93 euros, and The Swatch Group, 3.2 percent to 72.25 Swiss francs.
Compagnie Financière Richemont was up 4.6 percent to 78.10 Swiss francs, as the company became a 50 percent shareholder in the new public company, Yoox Net-a-porter Group, which made its debut on the Milan stock exchange on Monday.
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In a statement, Richemont confirmed it now holds 50 percent of the share capital, with voting rights limited to 25 percent to guarantee the new group’s independence. Richemont has a lock-up period of three years in respect to shares equivalent to 25 percent of the total share capital of the new company.
The Swiss parent of Cartier, Dunhill, Van Cleef & Arpels, and IWC, also said the merger transaction will generate a “significant one-off, non-cash, accounting gain” in Richemont’s financial statements for the full-year ending March 31, 2016.
The gain will be reported within “profit from discontinued operations,” and is estimated to be between 610 million euros and 670 million euros.
Among the very few stocks that lost ground on Monday were Italia Independent Group, 1.7 percent to 28.96 euros; Koovs, 2.7 percent to 0.36 pounds, and Mulberry Group, 0.8 percent to 9.01 pounds.