European Shares Recoup On Greece Austerity Vote, Rate Decisions

European Shares Recoup On Greece Austerity Vote, Rate Decisions

European shares opened higher during Thursday`s morning session after Greek parliament passed vote on further austerity measures, also propelled by the Bank of England and European Central Bank interest rate decisions today.

In spite of momentous and roaring protests outside the parliament, legislators passed the austerity vote by a thin margin, introducing 13.5 billion euro austerity measures of public spending cuts, tax increases and pensions reforms.

154 representatives in the Athens parliament, from a total of 300, voted in favor to austerity measures, ultimately to keep the debt-wracked country in the Eurozone.

The BoE and the ECB are set to announce their monetary policy decisions later in the day, likely to keep interest rate unchanged at 0.50% to the former, 0.75% to the latter. Europe`s two giant banks are playing safe amidst challenging economic circumstances and vague outlook due to the ever-worsening debt crisis.

At precisely 03:35 EST, French CAC40 rose 0.73% to 3434.47, German DAX 0.51% up to 7269.77 and Britain`s FTSE 100 by 0.38% to 5813.90.

Meanwhile, at 12:03 (GMT +3) the euro fell to $1.2769 following opening at $1.2770. The EUR/USD pair hit highest intraday at $1.2779 and touched low of $1.2741 so far.

The British pound continued to decline pushing the GBP/USD pair to trade at $1.5979 after opening at $1.5985, recording highest at $1.5992 and snapping back to an intraday low of $1.5969.