Europe midday: Stocks snap higher as ECB delivers dovish surprise

Stocks bounded higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank surprised markets by signalling that interest rates were very unlikely to head higher before September of 2019.

That sent the euro duly lower, boosting shares in the core markets of the single currency bloc in particular.

As of 1430 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was gaining 0.89% or 3.44 points to 391.69, alongside gains of 1.26% to 13,054.11 on the German Dax, while Paris's Cac-40 was sporting gains of 1.20% or 65.36 points to 5,518.60.

In parallel, euro/dollar was giving back 1.27% to 1.16431 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year German bund was off by six basis points to 0.42%.

Gains in periphery markets were more restrained, with Spain's top-flight Ibex 35 up by 0.35% or 31.90 points at 9,930.80.

As expected, the ECB's Governing Council announced that its quantitative easing policy was likely to come to an end at the of 2018.

However, in its policy statement, the ECB further stated that interest rates would "remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019 and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure that the evolution of inflation remains aligned with the current expectations of a sustained adjustment path."

Further boosting sentiment, eve as ECB chief Mario Draghi was speaking, the US Department of Commerce reported that retail sales rose by 0.8% month-on-month in May, more than doubling economists' forecasts.

In other economic news, Germany's Ministry of Finance reported that on a harmonised basis consumer prices rose by 0.6% month-on-month in May and were 2.2% higher year-on-year.

Over in France meanwhile, INSEE said that on the same basis CPI was up by 0.5% and 2.3%, respectively.