European shares gain ahead of big week for central banks

European shares inched higher on Monday, lifted by economically sensitive sectors, ahead of monetary policy decisions by some of the world’s largest central banks that could potentially include an early end to U.S. policy stimulus.

The pan-European benchmark STOXX 600 was up, Asian stocks tracked Wall Street gains after U.S. inflation data, which was well within market expectations, sent the S&P 500 to all-time high on Friday.

Investor focus is on monetary policy decisions expected to be taken by the European Central Bank (ECB), the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan this week.

The ECB is set to halve the amount of assets it buys each month from April, according to a Reuters poll, which judged that a reprieve from high euro zone inflation by late 2022 means a rate hike is years away.

Miners offered the biggest boost, moving up after top copper consumer China pledged to focus on economic stability and keep growth within a reasonable range next year. [MET/L]

Vifor Pharma also moved up after Australian biopharma giant CSL (OTC:CSLLY) confirmed it was in talks to buy the Swiss drugmaker in a deal reported by media to be worth about $7.2 billion.

Shares of UniCredit also advanced  after the lender announced it wants to grow its domestic footprint and could consider tie-ups in Italy and beyond, but has no interest in the country’s biggest insurer Generali (MI:GASI) and its top shareholder Mediobanca (OTC:MDIBY).

Air France KLM (OTC:AFLYY) inched up  after saying it redeemed 500 million euros from an earlier French state loan issued to help the carrier cope with the pandemic, and could also raise new equity.

World stocks, oil prices and the dollar firmed on Monday as a generally upbeat mood took hold of world markets ahead of a host of central bank meetings this week that includes the U.S. Federal Reserve.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 index closed up as It rose to its highest in almost five months on hopes for more stimulus as the country’s top leaders vowed to priorities economic stability in 2022.

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