Europe midday: Stocks jump on hope coronavirus will prove short-lived

Stocks on the Continent were continuing to push higher after the World Health Organisation's latest update on the China coronavirus showed a continued slowdown in the rate of new cases.

The WHO 's latest update, published the night before, showed that the compound daily growth rate in the number of virus cases had held below 10.0% for a second consecutive day.

That was less than half the rate observed in the week after the WHO's first situation report was published on 20 January, analysts at ShoreCap explained.

Strking a similar note, speaking from Abu Dhabi, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, said the impact of the virus on markets had been "exaggerated" and would likely prove short-lived.

Against that backdrop, as of 1400 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.79% higher to 427.98, alongside a gain of 0.96% to 13,623.0 for the German Dax while the Cac-40 was ahead by 0.44% to 6,041.96.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were 1.91% higher to $54.33 a barrel on the ICE, but only a smidgen above their 52-week lows, as Russian Federation energy minister, Alexander Novak, said his country was carefully studying an OPEC+ recommendation for extending the group's oil output curbs.

According to Interfax, Novak also said he would discuss implementation of the OPEC+ deal with the country's oil bosses the next day.

IG's Chris Beauchamp also saw reasons to be upbeat, pointing out that market breadth was improving and that the long-term bullish trend in stocks was intact.

However, he also cautioned that there was yet "[no] end in sight for the crisis in China", highlighting the lack of buying in crude oil which "some will worry that equities are beginning to run out of road in the short-term."

TUI AG was pacing gains on the Stoxx 600 after it kept the top end of its guidance range for full-year profits, with strong trading in its Markets and Airlines arm offsetting the extended grounding of its Boeing 737 Max jets.

German financial factoring and leasing outfit Grenke AG was higher too after hiking its full-year dividend from €0.80 per share to €0.88.

France's Eiffage was also on the up, after Westminster gave the green light to the £100.0bn HS2 rail project for which it is a contractor.

Umicore was also higher, after analysts at Citi told clients that the pre-results 2020 consensus of €570.0m was likely to see upgrades thanks to the company's Recycling division. And following a sell-side meeting with the company's CEO, CFO and IR head, Deutsche Bank bumped up its target price from €39.0 to €40.0.

Going the other way, stock in NMC Health was the worst performer on that same pan-European gauge, after US private equity outfit KKR poured cold water on rumours of a possible bid for the Abu Dhabi-focused healthcare operator.

Further afield, in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded a confident note on the possibility that local elections could be held in Donbass in fall 2020, Interfax reported.

He was reportedly speaking after a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.