European markets are higher following news that China’s purchasing managers’ surveys showed improvements from July and better than expected Australian GDP data. However, the good news was somewhat tempered by the UK August PMI numbers  which showed a 3.0 point month on month drop to 54.3, much worse than that 57.0 expected. Meanwhile Euro area PMI was revised a tick higher to 55.1 from 55.0.

We are seeing selling in defensive names any buying in the commodity and oil service related names.

FTSE 100 +1.46%

CAC        +1.79%

DAX         + 1.11%