European shares, euro rally

European stocks mostly rallied and the euro shot higher against the dollar on Tuesday as bright German economic data and a successful Spanish bond auction provided respite from the eurozone debt crisis. In company news, AT&T scrapped its $39-billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom, whose shares fell about 1.0 percent on the DAX 30 -- up 1.05 percent overall at 5,730.77 points in midday Frankfurt trade. The Paris CAC 40 advanced 1.13 percent to 3,007.98 points, while London's FTSE 100 index was flat at 5,367.35 points. Madrid gained 1.33 percent and Milan 1.45 percent. In foreign exchange deals, the euro jumped to $1.3062 from $1.2996 late in New York on Monday. Shares mostly rose "after a successful Spanish bond auction and a better than expected German Ifo survey," said Joshua Raymond, chief market strategist at the City Index trading group. But London failed to make gains with "resource stocks weighed somewhat by weakness in oil and financial firms," he said. "Trading is choppy once again, a likely common theme this week, with the majority of traders sitting on the sidelines now for the holiday period and this is exacerbating market moves and clouding true market sentiment," Raymond added. Two leading sentiment indicators in Germany surprised on the bright side on Tuesday, bringing a touch of Christmas sparkle to the pall of gloom currently enveloping the eurozone. The Ifo economic institute said it was bringing "good tidings" with the announcement that its closely watched business sentiment index defied analysts' expectations for the second month in a row and rose to 107.2 points in December from 106.6 in November. Analysts had been projecting a fall in the index to about 106 points. A separate survey showed that German consumer confidence was holding up as rising employment and incomes helped to offset looming recession fears. In Madrid, Spain raised 5.64 billion euros ($7.4 billion) in an auction of short-term debt, raising more money than first planned as it locked in sharply lower borrowing rates. Spain had originally planned to sell 3.5-4.5 billion euros in three- and six-month bills in Tuesday's auction. Rates fell dramatically from the last comparable auction last month, a sign of easing market tensions. The 17-nation eurozone, which includes Germany, France and Spain but not Britain, agreed on Monday to lend 150 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund for use in stabilising the single currency area, a governmental source said. The source said the aim was still to reach the 200 billion euros target set by EU leaders at a December 9 summit, despite a British refusal to stump up its roughly 30-billion-euro share based on IMF quotas. Asian stock markets meanwhile closed mixed on Tuesday as initial concerns about regional tensions after the death of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il subsided, although European debt woes dragged on sentiment. With attention turning to the leadership succession in Pyongyang, markets were relieved that there seemed to be no internal turmoil in the nuclear-armed state, providing dealers an opportunity to pick up cheap stocks. Seoul, which tumbled 3.4 percent on Monday, rebounded on Tuesday to end 0.91 percent higher. Tokyo rose 0.49 percent, while Shanghai shed 0.10 percent. Regional markets tumbled Monday after news Kim had died, throwing into uncertainty the future of the hermit state, which for years has raised tensions in the region with its erratic behaviour and nuclear capability. However, analysts said that with his son Kim Jong-Un hailed in state media as the "great successor" there seemed to be some stability and there would likely be minimal impact on financial markets.