MILAN/FRANKFURT: European shares rose on Tuesday as investors were hopeful of a faster economic recovery, while technology shares gained after French IT consulting group Atos ended talks of a potential takeover of US rival DXC Technology.

Shares in Atos SE gained 2.8% after the firm said it has decided to discontinue talks about a potential $10 billion acquisition of DXC Technology Co.

The European technology sector rose 1.3%, while the STOXX 600 index gained 1.2%. All of Europe’s major sector indexes were in positive territory in the first hour of trading.

BP fell 3.4% after its profit in the last quarter of 2020 sunk to $115 million due to weak energy demand and poor trading results.

Silver prices dropped more than 4% on Tuesday, halting a rally to near 8-year highs in the previous session that was the latest move in two weeks of turmoil on financial markets fuelled by a pack of Reddit-centered individual investors.

A pause in the rally that drove up prices of the commodity as well as certain stocks including GameStop Corp has helped calm worries about potential losses incurred by certain hedge funds causing disruption to markets as a whole.