DAX Up 220 Points Led By Banks

(RTTNews) - German shares opened sharply higher on Monday as weak trade data out of China and sluggish Japanese GDP data boosted hopes for extra stimulus.

Asian shares snapped a five-session losing streak, China's yuan hit a 2016 high, the yen weakened against its major rivals in Asian deals and gold prices fell more than 2 percent, underscoring a shift in investors' sentiment towards riskier assets.

The benchmark German DAX was up 220 points or 2.45 percent at 9,184 after climbing 2.5 percent on Friday.

Commerzbank rallied 3.7 percent and Deutsche Bank rose 2.3 percent on reports that the European Central Bank is mulling buying re-bundled non-performing loans of Italian banks as part of its asset-purchase program.

Bertrandt shares soared 5 percent. The developer of individual solutions for the international automotive and aviation industries reported that its first-quarter post-tax earnings rose to 16.5 million euros from 14.6 million euros in the previous year.