Milan leads European markets higher

(ANSA) - Milan, October 21 - After enduring heavy losses last week, Italy's leading stock index the FTSE Mib regained its footing Tuesday, rising 2.28% by early afternoon.
    Gains in banking shares helped lift Milan's index to 18,962.42 points, including a jump of 9% in the shares of Monte Paschi di Siena bank, which were hit hard on Monday following media reports that the institution could be ordered by the European Central Bank (ECB) to boost capital levels.
    The ECB has been conducting a deep assessment of European banks to ensure their stability and is due to issue its report on Sunday.
    Other Italian banks also reported gains in trading Tuesday, as UBI rose by almost 5%, Banco Popolare was up by 4.6%, Intesa rose by more than 4% and Unicredit was up by 4.27%.
    Besides financial companies, Mediaset also reported a significant gain of 4.32% while Yoox rose 4.41%.
    At the same time, the spread between Italy's benchmark 10-year BTP bonds and their equivalent German Bunds narrowed to 162.2 basis points by early afternoon, considerably lower than the opening spread of 178.2. The yield on the Italian paper fell to 2.5% from the opening level of 2.6%.
    Trading was higher across most European indices, which also suffered last week's rout by investors who were frightened by the possibility of global economic slowing.
    In Athens, the leading index rose by 0.6% while Paris's bourse gained 1.68% after early losses in reaction to the news of the death in Russia of the chief executive officer of Total energy, once of France's biggest companies.
    CEO Christophe de Margerie was killed late Monday night in a plane crash at the Vnukovo airport near Moscow. On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Dax index gained 1.38% while London's FTSE reported gains of 0.l85% by early afternoon.