European shares extended gains in late-morning trade at the start of the week higher as investors eyed a no-confidence vote in UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday night along with US inflation data and European Central Bank minutes later in the week.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.93% with all major regional bourses higher.
Johnson, found guilty of breaching his own Covid lockdown rules, will face a vote tonight after at least 54 parliamentary members of the ruling Conservative Party submitted letters of no confidence.
Investors are keeping close watch on any signals that could extend the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate rise timetable.
“With the latest inflation number due on Friday, the potential is high for the number to put the cat among the pigeons once more. A rise of 0.7% is expected for May, which would leave core inflation at around 6%. However, anything higher would again prompt expectations that the Fed’s current policy would need to extend beyond the rate hikes already expected in June and July,” said Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter.
In equity news, Melrose Industries share rose after the company said it had sold its Ergotron business to funds managed by The Sterling Group for $650m (£520m) in cash.
Shares in Just Eat Takeaway soared after a Times newspaper report that the founder of Grubhub teamed up with US private equity giant General Atlantic in an audacious attempt to buy back the company he sold to Just Eat Takeaway for $7.3bn last year.
Matt Maloney, who co-founded the takeaway firm in Chicago in 2004, is understood to have been working with the TikTok-investor earlier this year on taking back control of Grubhub. Sources said they had ultimately decided against making a bid.
