European Shares Rise After a Hard Week

European shares rose after their Asian counterparts rose on Monday, August 23 after a brutal sell-off last week on worries about global growth, while investors awaited a series of business data.

The STOXX 600 index of European shares rose 0.6% by 07:14 GMT after fears of rising Covid-19 cases and tighter scrutiny on Chinese companies pushed it to its worst weekly performance in six months.

The IHS Markitmarkt’s Eurozone and UK business activity reading for August will be released later today, while the figures are expected to show slight slowdown inactivity.

Among individual stocks, British grocery group Sainsbury’s share jumped 6.6% after a report that direct investment companies are looking at the possibility of launching bids to take over the company with a value of more than seven billion pounds, or about 9.53 billion dollars.

German BioNTech shares rose 4.4% after a report said the US Food and Drug Administration aims to grant full approval to its partner Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.