Europe close: Stocks gain as political worries in France abate

European stocks were higher on Thursday as investors' concerns about US president Donald Trump’s economic plans drew attention to the relatively better valuations on offer on the Continent.

By the close of trading, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 0.85% or 3.17 points at 377.20, Germany’s DAX jumped 1.14% to 12,039.68 and France’s CAC-40 was 0.76% firmer at 5,032.76.

Banks were among the best performers, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge gaining 0.67% to 177.65 following news of a much larger than expected take up by banks at the European Central bank´s last large-scale long-term liquidity auction and receding worries around the upcoming French elections, on 23 April.

In currency markets, the euro was drifting lower by 0.12% versus the US dollar to 1.0784 and down 0.43% against the pound at 0.8609.

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures were off 0.2% to $50.57.

Investors were eyeing the judgement of Donald Trump’s healthcare bill in the House of Representatives as a litmus test of the WHite House's ability to push key legislation through Congress, including tax cuts later in the year.

"Our US economists place a low probability on the bill being blocked and instead their base case remains for it being passed. This is primarily based on their view that since much of the Trump agenda rests on the ability of the Republicans to pass healthcare reform, its failure would seriously dent the party’s political capital and imperil other legislative actions," said Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.

On the data front, Eurozone banks took up €233.5bn in the final targeted longer-term refinancing operation auction in the first quarter following the €62.2bn the previous quarter, and above the €110bn consensus forecast.

Precautionary bidding ahead of the French elections may have played a hand in the strong uptake from lenders, Unicredit Research pointed out, despite the recent easing of political concerns.

Macquarie also sounded an optimistic note on France, telling clients: "Why do we have an overweight view of European and French banks in view of the above? In short because we don’t expect any of these scenarios to materialise. We expect the French election to play out in similar fashion to the Dutch. On this basis, we think French banks are cheap [...]."

Linked to the above, there was some 'market-chatter' to be seen regarding the recent rise in polls of the anti-establishment 5 Star movement in Italy.

The GfK German consumer sentiment index fell to 9.8 for April from 10.0 in March, below the consensus forecast for it to remain unchanged. But economic expectations, a measure that has been found to correlate best with spending, recovered from a significant drop the previous month.

In corporate news, Ted Baker fell 6.34% despite the company reporting an increase in full-year revenue and profit.

Online gambling company GVC Holdings rose 5.37% after it reported a surge in full-year earnings and said it will pay a second special dividend for 2016.

Gemalto fell 3.82% after the Dutch security firm cut its guidance on Wednesday.

Accenture was down 3.98% after the Dublin-headquartered professional services company beat profit quarterly expectations.