European stocks rally on Greek debt deal hopes

Europe's main stock markets rallied Tuesday, recording a second day of gains on hopes of a deal being struck on the renegotiation of Greece's debt.
The Greek stock market surged by more than 11 percent after Athens elaborated on its plans to shake up Greece's huge international bailout.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 1.11 percent to stand at 6,857.84 points in afternoon deals.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 index climbed 0.76 percent compared with Monday's close to 10,910.40 points and in Paris the CAC 40 won 1.21 percent to stand at 4,683.57.
Madrid spiked 2.69 percent and Milan by 2.25 percent.
The euro leapt to $1.1429 from $1.1343 late in New York late on Monday.
"Equity markets have jumped as the prospect of a Greek default has dwindled for the time being, as the country's finance minister has laid out a number of options for debt restructuring," said David Madden, market analyst at IG trading group.
Greece's radical new leaders flew into Rome Tuesday seeking to build support for new proposals aimed at ending a stand-off with the country's creditors and its European Union partners.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the leftist-dominated government in Athens would be making proposals for "a menu of debt swaps" that would avoid the need for any of the country's mountain of foreign debt to be written off.
"Greece’s problems are far from over but as far as the markets are concerned calm has been restored," Madden added.
- Oil helps energy stocks -
On the corporate front Tuesday, the energy sector won support from signs of recovery in the oil market.
"The bounce in oil has boosted shares in the commodity sector and this theme could continue for some time yet," noted Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com.
"Oil prices have rebounded strongly over the past three trading sessions on signs that producers are cutting back output."
Shares in BP jumped by 2.5 percent to 448.50 pence in Tuesday trading, lifted also by better-than-expected earnings revealed by the British energy group.
The company meanwhile joined sector peers in announcing that it plans to slash investment this year as the recent plunge in crude prices bites into group profits.
Spending in 2015 was expected to total about $20 billion, down from a previous guidance of $24-26 billion, BP said in a results statement.
And smaller British rival BG Group revealed it would cut investment by about $3.0 billion this year.
Shares on Wall Street opened higher Tuesday, following European equities upward on optimism for a deal to renegotiate Greece's debt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.90 percent to 17,516.80 points after five minutes of trading.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.80 percent to 2,037.00, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.53 percent to 4,705.13.
In Asian trading, Sydney stocks surged 1.46 percent higher and the Aussie dollar slumped after Australia's central bank cut interest rates to a record low 2.25 percent.
Tokyo sank 1.27 percent owing to a pick-up in the yen against the dollar.
Hong Kong added 0.29 percent and Shanghai rallied 2.45 percent on expectations of some policy easing after weak manufacturing figures from China on Sunday and Monday.
Seoul ended flat.