Europe close: Shares boosted by strong US factory sector surveys
Stocks rose as two important US regional manufacturing gauges pointed to robust activity ahead, with traders apparently giving short shrift to the heavy news-flow regarding continuing trade tensions and geopolitical tensions.
"European stocks are set to finish higher today as the swing in US markets influences the rally. US stocks have been leading the way recently, and that remains the case. At the moment the uncertainly surrounding a possible trade war is falling, and that is helping to trigger the positive move in stocks," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.
Against that backdrop, at the closing bell the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.52% or 1.94 points to 376.88, alongside a rise of 0.88% or 107.82 points to 12,345.56 for Germany's Dax and a gain of 1.16% or 261.13 points to 22,713.47 for Milan's FTSE Mibtel 30.
March readings on the Empire State and Philly Fed factory sector indices validated the 14-year high reached on the key nation-wide ISM gauge, Pantheon Macroeconomics's Ian Shepherdson said.
"It was not a fluke. In short, the surveys signal that a robust manufacturing upswing continues unabated," he said.
Markets also held up despite somewhat hawkish rhetoric from rate-setters in Norway and Switzerland, although the Norwegian Krona was up by half a percentage point against the US dollar after the country's central bank flagged the possibility of quicker rate hikes this year.
Similarly, following its own policy meeting on Thursday, the Swiss National Bank warned of the risk of a correction in house prices, saying it would continue to regularly assess the need for an increase in lenders' so-called counter-cyclical buffers.
Acting as a backdrop, overnight the White House clarified that it was asking China to cut its yearly bilateral trade shortfall with the States by $100bn.
Responding to the message from the White House, state-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said: "If the U.S. wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change."
On the economic front in Europe, according to Ireland's Central Statistics Office in 2017 the country's gross domestic product expanded at a year-on-year clip of 7.8%.
In the corporate patch, Nikkei cited BASF's regional director for Asia saying the chemicals giant will invest €2.7bn to the region until 2022.
Meanwhile, French pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi gained issuing €8bn-worth of bonds with the aim of lowering its average cost of debt and in order to extend the average maturity of the same.
Societe Generale shares on the other hand traded slightly lower after deputy chief executive officer Didier Valet resigned in the wake of differences on how to approach a specific legal case, which market commentary linked to outstanding claims that it participated in the alleged rigging of LIBOR rates.