The UK market is moderately higher in afternoon trading Tuesday, after Eurozone finance ministers agreed to offer Spain 30 billion euros and U.K. industrial production logged an unexpected growth in May. The Asian markets closed lower as data out of China indicated weak demand.
Eurozone finance ministers on Monday endorsed the European Commission's recommendation to extend the deadline for the correction of the excessive deficit in Spain by one year to 2014. The ministers agreed to offer Spain 30 billion euros to help the country's troubled lenders.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is gaining 1.46 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is adding 0.87 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is currently rising 0.94 percent.
Barclays is adding 2.2 percent. The lender said its Board has reached an agreement with Bob Diamond on various matters, following his resignation as Chief Executive on July 3. Diamond will receive up to 12 months' salary, pension allowance and other benefits.
Royal Bank of Scotland is gaining 1.9 percent and Lloyds Banking is rising 0.9 percent.
Among miners, Vedanta is climbing 5.2 percent and Xstrata is advancing 3.2 percent.
Marks & Spencer is gaining 1.5 percent, after reporting a marginal drop in first-quarter sales. The retailer said Kate Bostock, Executive Director General Merchandise, would leave the firm by mutual consent.
Compass Group is falling 2.6 percent and GlaxoSmithKline is losing 1.9 percent.
Balfour Beatty is losing 3.5 percent after a trading update. SIG, which reported lower sales for the first half of the year, is declining over 5 percent.
London Capital Group is declining nearly 13 percent. The investment services company expects lower profit for its first half due to a decline in volumes amid market volatility.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is advancing 1.47 percent and the French CAC 40 is rising 1.32 percent. Switzerland's SMI is adding 0.59 percent.
In economic news, U.K. industrial production logged an unexpected growth of 1 percent in May from a month ago, when it fell 0.4 percent, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists were forecasting a 0.2 percent fall for May.
In France, industrial production declined 1.9 percent month-on-month in May, data from statistical office Insee showed. This reversed the 1.4 percent increase in April and was more than the 1 percent drop expected by economists.
China's export growth slowed in June, while gain in imports was much weaker than forecast, signaling subdued demand both at home and abroad, official data showed.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries slid 0.5 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks saw moderate weakness during trading but ended the session well off their worst levels of the day. The Dow slipped 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 percent each.
In the commodity space, crude for August delivery is losing $0.50 to $85.49 per barrel and August gold is rising $4.1 to $1593.2 a troy ounce.
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