European shares closed flat on Tuesday, with Italian lender UBI Banca leading banks lower after a capital hike, but with miners higher as aluminium prices hit their highest since 2008 on Middle East unrest. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.04 percent at 1,125.94 points, its highest close since March 10, and up for eight sessions out of nine, though some of the gains have been marginal.
Volumes matched the 90-day average. UBI Banca shed 12.4 percent as its 1 billion-euro capital increase took investors by surprise and prompted speculation that other banks could be heading down the same route. Intesa SanPaolo and UniCredit fell 4.5 and 3.7 percent respectively.
Miners rose as aluminium on the London Metal Exchange hit the highest since September 2008 as Middle East unrest fuelled expectations of rising costs for the power-intensive metal. Copper prices recovered late in the day, having been down earlier on concerns about Chinese demand. Heavyweights in the sector to rise included Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, up between 2 and 2.2 percent.
Vedanta rose 2.9 percent following recent upbeat broker comment surrounding its pending purchase of oil and gas firm Cairn India, which analysts say could be 30 percent earnings assertive. But BP fell 2.2 percent after a rating downgrade by Collins Stewart and on reports that the company may face manslaughter charges over its Gulf of Mexico spill. Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC40 rose 0.5 and 0.3 percent respectively. Germany's DAX fell 0.1 percent. Italy's FTSE MIB and Ireland's ISEQ both fell 1 percent; Portugal's benchmark and Spain's IBEX both fell 0.2 percent. Investors await confirmation of improving economic fundamentals from key data such as the US non farm payrolls due later in the week.