Commodities

LONDON (ShareCast) - Commodities have helped Europe's leading exchanges close higher on the first day of the third quarter.

Total, Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS - news) and Eni (Milan: ENI.MI - news) were in demand after oil prices climbed nearer to $72 a barrel Wednesday, having plunged below $70 yesterday.

Miners were also hot property as metal prices rallied. Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED.L - news) , Eurasian Natural Resources, Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) , Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ.L - news) and Xstrata (LSE: XTA.L - news) claimed the top spots in London as gold jumped over $13 an ounce and copper improved.

Commerzbank (Xetra: 803200 - news) jumped more than 16% after the European Central Bank said it has no objections to Germany's "revised "bad bank" plan.

Across the markets, the German DAX was up 96 points at 4,905 with the French CAC rising 76 points to 3,217. The Swiss market added 68 points to 5,472.

In economic news, eurozone manufacturing activity contracted less than initially forecast in June. The Markit PMI for the 16-country zone rose to 42.6 in June compared with 40.7 in the previous month and above the 42.4 'flash' estimate.

"The ongoing improvement in the manufacturing purchasing managers' survey in June indicates that the sector is increasingly benefiting from the major inventory correction that has occurred while both domestic and foreign orders are now falling at a substantially reduced rate after plunging in late-2008 and early-2009," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

"Nevertheless, the survey indicates that manufacturing activity is still contracting appreciably, and it is likely that Eurozone producers will continue to find life difficult over the coming months as they are faced by still muted demand in domestic and export markets, as well as intensified competition."

CAC 40 (Paris: news) - Risers Carrefour (CA) € 32.15 +5.70% Unibail-Rodamco (UL) € 112.00 +5.50% Essilor International (EI) € 35.73 +5.15% Saint Gobain (Paris: FR0000125007 - news) (SGO) € 24.76 +3.92% EADS (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) (EAD) € 11.93 +3.65% Veolia Environnement (Paris: FR0000124141 - news) (VIE) € 21.75 +3.60% Pernod Ricard (Paris: FR0000120693 - news) (RI) € 46.47 +3.57% PPR (Paris: FR0000121485 - news) (PP) € 60.05 +3.26% L'Oreal (Paris: FR0000120321 - news) (OR) € 55.00 +3.24% France Telecom (Paris: FR0000133308 - news) (FTE) € 16.67 +3.19%

CAC 40 - Fallers Lafarge (Paris: FR0000120537 - news) (LG (003550.KS - news) ) € 46.83 -2.94% Alcatel (Paris: FR0000130007 - news) -Lucent (ALU) € 1.77 -0.89% Vivendi (Paris: FR0000127771 - news) (VIV) € 17.01 -0.12%