Europe open: Stocks rise at quarter's end helped by better news out of Italy and Spain

Stocks across the Continent are trading higher again at the end of what has been a disastrous first quarter, helped by figures pointing to a possible peak in sight for the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy and Spain.

Overnight, Italy reported a decline in the rate of infections on Monday to 1,648 to reach 75,528, versus an increase of 3,815 on Sunday.

Also boosting investor sentiment across the board was an unexpectedly much stronger than expected reading on Chinese factory sector activity in March.

Nonetheless, according to Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, much of the "resilience" in shares might just be the result of month and quarter end flows.

"Tomorrow’s PMI numbers from Europe and the US could kick a leg of the recovery stool away," he said.

As of 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 1.89% at 320.83, alongside a 2.51% jump for the German Dax to 10,060.99, while the FTSE Mibtel was ahead by 1.58% to 17,139.43.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were 2.5% higher to $23.34 a barrel on the ICE.

On the economic front, European Central Bank governing council member, Ignazio Visco, said the monetary authority would explore all the options available to support the economy.

Eurostat meanwhile reported a slowdown in the year-on-year rate of consumer price increases from 1.2% to 0.7%, as expected by economists.

An annual 4.3% drop in energy prices was the main drag on headline CPI.

On a more positive note, the rate of unemployment in Germany was unchanged in March from the prior month at 5.0%.

Overnight, in China, the 'official' factory PMI printed at 52.0, indicating growth in the economy following a record low reading of 35.7 in February.

Any reading above 50.0 denotes growth and the print for March was far better than the 44.8 that economists had penciled-in.