Europe open: Stocks rally after Scotland votes against independence
European stocks gained on Friday as Scotland voted against independence from the UK.
Scots voted 55% in favour of keeping its 307-year union with England alive, which sent the pound higher against the euro. The euro was down 0.55% to £0.78.
Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, described the result as a “sigh of relief” for the European Union (EU).
“Europe can breathe a sigh of relief. A problem avoided. The EU does not have to deal with a possibly contentious case of divorce within its ranks and does not have to ponder a membership application from a country just breaking away from one of its key members,” he said.
Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, which had said they would move their headquarters to England from Scotland if the referendum voted ‘yes’, advanced on the news.
In other corporate news, Vivendi rallied after agreeing to sell its Brazilian broadband unit GVT to Telefonica.
SAP slumped after the maker of business-management software agreed to buy Concur Technologies.
Brent crude futures fell 0.13% to $97.57 per barrel, according to the ICE.