LIVE MARKETS-Mining stocks in your ESG portfolio? Really?

* European shares rally on trade relief

* Autos, banks lead gainers

* Euro STOXX 50 set for 10-day winning streak

* Wall Street futures flat

Sept 21 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to

you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus. Reach him on Messenger to

share your thoughts on market moves: julien.ponthus.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

MINING STOCKS IN YOUR ESG PORTFOLIO? REALLY? (1136 GMT)

Miners aren't generally seen as the cornerstone of any good environment, social and

governance (ESG)- friendly investment strategy - but it's the argument Bernstein's mining

analysts set out in a rare defence of the sector.

"We firmly believe that any fund that has pretensions towards an ESG mandate should be

overweight the miners," writes Bernstein's Paul Gait and team.

"Anything other than this seems to us to signal a significant confusion about the nature of

wealth creation and the role of mining in that process."

They go on to argue that most of the UN's Millennium Development Goals will require a

significant amount of natural resource extraction to achieve.

"There seems to be very little point in claiming ESG credentials if not actually committing

capital to the one sector that is genuinely indispensable to the delivery of any of the world's

most pressing development goals," writes Gait.

By Bernstein's estimates, the world will require a 240 percent increase in global average

steel stock to create the wealth the world needs to eliminate poverty.

Similarly, if we are all to drive electric cars someday soon, the copper stock needs to boom

by 248 percent.

"We would expect to see, albeit over the long term, a re-rating of the sector as this

growing awareness is reflected in capital inflows into the industry," Gait and team conclude.

Mining stocks have certainly climbed strongly this week as metals rallied - but they're

still down 4.6 percent on the year so still a long way to go to get back on investors'

favourites list.

And most ESG funds still exclude mining stocks (and oil stocks) by default - it'll take a

big sea change in sentiment on the highly polluting sectors to change that.

(Helen Reid)

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MIDDAY SNAPSHOT: IT'S LOOKING GOOD ON TRIPLE WITCHING DAY (1110 GMT)

Among other things it's triple witching today and that's boosting activity across European

indexes which continue to trade firmly in the black as the trade relief bounce enters its fourth

day.

Here's this week's key milestone and below you can se where we stand in Europe at the

moment.

* EuroSTOXX50 set for 10 straight days of gains - longest streak in three

decades

(Danilo Masoni and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)

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EUROPE LOOKING MORE BANKABLE THAN WALL STREET 5 YEARS AHEAD (1034 GMT)

European shares are expected to provide annualised returns of 6.3 percent over the next five

years, just slightly above their American peers, according to Northern Trust’s Capital Market

Assumptions five-year outlook.

While the theme of a structural gap between a buoyant Wall Street and sluggish European

indexes has grown these last few months, it won't prove to be a trend, the report suggests,

predicting a 5.8 percent figure for the US.

Among the key assumptions behind these "good-but-not-great" forecasts are continuously low

interest rates and inflation.

Asian emerging markets are expected to yield the best returns at 8.8 percent, the worst

coming from Canada with 5.5 percent.

The highest average annualised equity return is forecast for at 8.8%, Canada is lowest at

5.5 percent.

You can find the report here: https://bit.ly/2JmLVbn

(Julien Ponthus)

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INVESTORS SHRUG OFF EASING EURO ZONE BUSINESS GROWTH (1006 GMT)

We just mentioned Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) sees euro zone PMIs bottoming out soon, but investors also

seem to be taking the latest data point in their stride despite the survey pointing to business

growth slowing again in September.

"Export orders are stagnating in the eurozone and the coming months will continue to be

bumpy as a deal on Brexit seems far away after Salzburg and the global trade conflict

continues," write ING economists.

But Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Wealth Management, reckons the PMI survey measures

aren't the be-all and end-all.

"Normal people, of course, do not fill in surveys as a rule nowadays," he notes.

Since 2010, the French manufacturing production PMI has had a 37 percent correlation with

reality, he says - Italy's has been 17 percent correlated while Germany is 1 percent.

"Some people might get excited about a 1 percent correlation with reality. Economists are

not those people," says Donovan.

Here's your PMI chart:

(Helen Reid)

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GO FOR VALUE! (0930 GMT)

Deutsche Bank has just said investors should stay overweight value vs growth, confirming its

presence in the growing chorus of those who say that betting on inexpensive European stocks is

likely to be a winning strategy.

Andreas Bruckner, Sebastian Raedler and Thomas Pearce at the German bank first made the

recommendation in June but since then value has continued to underperform growth, easing by

another 1 percent.

Nevertheless they believe that the drivers of value outperformance - Euro area PMI momentum

bottoming out and rising U.S. 10-year bond yields - will hold true.

The 10-year Treasury yield is hovering at four-month highs, topping 3 percent, while the

latest PMI survey today has shown euro zone business growth eased again this month but optimism

picked up a tad from August's 23-month low.

Deutsche Bank says value could outperform growth by 7 percent by early November and also

flags some picks: Allianz (Swiss: ALV-EUR.SW - news) , BNP Paribas (LSE: 0HB5.L - news) , Daimler (IOB: 0NXX.IL - news) and Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news)

. Value sectors like autos and banks are leading sectoral gainers today.

(Danilo Masoni)

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OPENING SNAPSHOT: EUROPE EXTENDS RALLY, FOOD DELIVERY STOCKS TUMBLE (0716 GMT)

European stocks are rising further with the STOXX50E up 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX up 0.8

percent and the STOXX 600 up 0.5 percent. Autos, miners and banks are again the top gainers.

Just Eat (Frankfurt: A1100K - news) is the top faller this morning, down 7.5 percent after a report Uber is in early

talks to buy Deliveroo. While some traders saw the stock - and peers Delivery Hero and Takeaway

- rising on the news of dealmaking in the sector, it seems like, as one put it, "the competitive

threat outweighs M&A valuations".

Just Eat may be the top victim as Uber seems to have picked rival Deliveroo over it.

Takeaway is down just 0.2 percent and Delivery Hero is falling 1.3 percent.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in British industrial technology firm Smiths are also falling 7 percent after its

full-year profit missed analysts' estimates.

(Helen Reid)

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ON THE RADAR: A ONCE IN 30-YEARS PERFORMANCE? (0649 GMT)

European blue chips seem to be heading straight into a 10th day of gains in a row as the

trade war relief rally shows it has legs even if its substance is still anyone’s guess.

According to a first glimpse into our record, there haven't been 10 straight sessions of

gains since 1997! Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) if European indexes, unlike Wall Street, are not on record highs, it does

still show something!

Futures are firmly up and barring a disaster in French, German and euro zone sentiment

indicators later this morning, the upward trend seems solid enough. In the meantime, there is

also enough corporate news to animate morning trading.

Reports that Uber is in early talks to buy food delivery company Deliveroo could fuel

excitement in the industry and for companies such as Just Eat. Similarly talks and denials of a

tie-up between state-owned Emirates and Etihad could also trigger more speculation in the

airlines sector.

In the news-sensitive Italian banking sector, Carige's top investor secured a majority of

seats on the beleaguered Italian bank's new board on Thursday, after falling out with a third

chief executive in three years.

Comcast (Swiss: CMCSA.SW - news) and Twenty-First Century Fox will also settle their takeover battle for Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) in a

weekend auction run by British regulators, setting up a dramatic climax to a 21-month sale

process that has pitted some of the world's biggest media giants against each other.

Still in the world of M&A, France’s Tikehau Capital said it had entered into exclusive

negotiations to acquire Sofidy which has 14.8 billion euros of assets under management.

Belgium’s Nyrstar (LSE: 0RH8.L - news) might be under pressure this morning after warning adverse market

conditions would impact its third quarter earnings.

Negative news report for Deutsche Post (IOB: 0H3Q.IL - news) with business daily Handelsblatt reporting slower

progress than expected to turn around the group's struggling letters and parcels unit. Alstom (EUREX: 2229080.EX - news)

announced a deal worth up to 1.3 billion euros for the Paris region.

(Julien Ponthus and Helen Reid)

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FUTURES RISE: A 10TH DAY OF GAINS FOR EURO ZONE BLUE CHIPS? (0617 GMT)

It's been quite straightforwardly positive so far this morning and the futures now also

point towards a rosy open for European stocks.

The session could be lead to a spectacular performance for euro zone blue chips

which could score ten straight sessions of gains.

The last time it did nine straight positive sessions was in June 2010.

(Julien Ponthus and Marc Angrand)

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EUROPE TO RISE AT THE OPEN, TRADE RALLY HAS LEGS (0520 GMT)

Good morning and welcome to Live Markets!

European shares are seen rising at the open as the relief rally prompted by fading trade war

worries shows investors it has legs.

After new records and Wall Street last night, Asian stocks have extended gains. Now

financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE to open 21 points higher, Frankfurt's DAX to rise

45 points and and Paris' CAC to add 13 points.

(Julien Ponthus)

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