Europe open: Traders buy the dip, focus on Berlin and London

Stocks are moving higher at the start of trading despite the present political deadlock in Germany, albeit amid reports Westminster has offered Brussels to double the size of its divorce bill to £40bn, which might allow Brexit talks to proceed.

"European markets managed to shrug off yesterday’s poor start, as well as the prospect that barring a sudden change of mind, Germany could be heading towards new elections sometime next year, after the unexpected breakdown in coalition talks. It would appear that for now the buy dip mentality remains alive and well and in rude health.

"While the DAX managed to recover to close higher, along with the rest of Europe’s markets the euro did come under pressure which in some respects helped support equity markets though the DAX rebound would also have been helped by the announcement by Volkswagen that they would be investing billions of euros into electric vehicles over the course of the next five years with €14bn of the total sum going into German factories alone," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

As of 1015 GMT, the Stoxx 600 was edging higher by 0.08% or 0.30 points to 386.69, alongside a rise of 0.18% or 23.06 points to 13,082.21 and a 0.27% or 14.29 points advance for the Cac-40 to 5,353.17.

In parallel, the single currency was dipping 0.02% to 1.1733 while front month Brent crude futures were trading up by 0.86% to 62.76 a barrel on the ICE.

Meanwhile, back in London, according to ITV the Prime Minister obtained the backing of her Cabinet to table an improved offer to Brussels and to give the European Court of Justice a role in guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens.

There was little out in terms of economic data for traders to chew on.

On that note, Switzerland's trade surplus slipped from 2.8bn Swiss francs in September to 2.4bn for October, according to the Federal Customs Administration.

The above aside, there was only the result of the Belgian central bank's consumer confidence survey for November at 1500 GMT left on the agenda.

Also for later in the session, US existing home sales figures for October were set for release at 1500 GMT too, followed by a speech from central bank chief Janet Yellen an hour after midnight.

German construction outfit Hochtief was in the spotlight after announcing it had clinched a €15bn syndicated bank facility to finance the purchase of Abertis.

Shares of Mediaset were also on the move, after JP Morgan lifted its recommendation on the shares from 'underweight' to 'neutral'.