European stocks close higher, led by defense gains

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - European stock markets closed the second trading day of the week with gains led by surges in defense shares.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.21%, or 1.2 points, to close out Tuesday at 573.3. The aerospace and defense index surged 1.36%.

Germany's DAX 40 index was up 0.29% to end at 24,330.03 points, and the UK's FTSE 100 gained 0.25% to end at 9,426.99 points.

France's CAC 40 rose 0.64% to 8,258.86, and Italy's FTSE MIB index added 0.6% to close at 42,648.28 points.

Some of the major market drivers were Europe's military stocks, which extended their gains after last week’s White House meeting between US President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggesting that the Ukraine war is not near its end.

Switzerland’s Montana Aerospace led the gains Tuesday, closing 9.5% higher, while Rheinmetall rose 1.2%, Leonardo 1.3%, and Hensoldt 0.7%.

On the corporate side, Novo Nordisk, a major pharmaceutical company from Denmark, was down 1.3%. Following a disagreement between current members and Novo's controlling shareholder, the firm said that it will call an extraordinary general meeting on Nov. 14 to choose new members for its board of directors.

Separately, European Central Bank (ECB) Chief Economist Philip Lane warned that eurozone banks could come under pressure if dollar financing is cut off.

On the data side, the eurozone's public debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 88.2% in the second quarter of this year.

Euro/dollar parity was down 0.3% at around 1.1606 as of 1705GMT.