European shares opened higher in the week before Christmas as Argentina celebrated a famous football World Cup win and eccentric Twitter boss Elon Musk invited his followers to sack him or back him via a poll on the social media platform.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.34% at 0821 GMT. After last weeks data deluge and several rate hike decisions, traders are expecting a quieter few days before the festive break.
Energy stocks were higher on the back of rising oil prices driven by hopes of a recovery in demand from China after the country relaxed several strict Covid-19 control measures. BP and Shell were both gainers.
Meanwhile Twitter chief executive Musk launched a poll on Sunday asking users whether he should step down as head of the company, adding that he would abide by the result.
Around 57% of 15.2 million voters had said that Musk should resign with two hours to go until the poll closed.
In other equity news, Freenet rose after Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the German-based telecom provider’s stock to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
