European shares rose early on Thursday, with Scottish-based banks Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland rallying after a poll showed a majority of Scots intend to vote against independence in next week's referendum.
At 0750 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2 per cent at 1,387.75 points, bouncing from a recent slide.
A survey late on Wednesday showed 53 per cent of Scots intend to vote against splitting away from the UK. The poll, carried out by Survation on behalf of the Daily Record newspaper, showed 47 per cent intending to vote yes to the split. The figures excluded 10 per cent of people who were undecided.
Scotland-based Lloyds gained 1.3 per cent, while RBS rose 2.1 per cent.
On Wednesday, Lloyds said its contingency plans for Scottish independence included setting up “new principle legal entities in England’’, while government and banking sources said RBS would also base itself in London in the event of independence.
“The latest poll is relatively reassuring but it’s still quite close. Whatever the result of the vote though, the implication for Europe is that it revives the spectre of similar referendums in Spain’s Catalonia and Belgium's Flanders,’’ said Alexandre Baradez, chief market analyst at IG France.
“It's a risk that investors have to start pricing in.’’
Mining stocks lost ground, with Rio Tinto down 0.6 per cent and BHP Billiton down 0.4 per cent, as iron ore futures in China and Singapore added to recent steep losses, amid abundant supply and slower growth in Chinese demand that have slashed spot prices of the steelmaking raw material by nearly 40 per cent this year.
On the macro front, data showed China’s consumer inflation cooled more than expected in August, further evidence that the economy is losing momentum, but economists are divided over whether Beijing will use the extra room to announce new stimulus measures.
Air France-KLM featured among the top gainers, up 3 per’cent after pledging to improve its core earnings by 8 to 10 per cent a year through 2017 as part of a new strategic plan combining an assault on the European leisure market with efforts to improve its appeal to long-haul travellers.
Despite the day's gains, the FTSEurofirst 300 is still down about 1 per cent from a peak hit last Thursday.