Europe midday: Stocks perk up on 'dovish' ECB talk, banks find a bid
Stocks on the Continent are edging back into the green on the back of 'dovish' remarks from top European Central Bank officials.
Speaking at a press conference in Frankfurt, ECB chief Mario Draghi said the monetary authority should perhaps look at ways to soften the "side effects, if any" of negative interest rates.
And while he did not believe an economic slump lay ahead, he added that if faced with a significant deterioration, then policymakers "will adopt all the monetary policy actions that are necessary and proportionate."
Shortly afterwards, his number two, Luis de Guindos, said that the Eurozone was "not immune" to spillovers from other regions, especially shocks originating from the US.
As of 1236 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.30% to 378.33, alongside an advance of 0.31% to 11,377.61 for the German Dax and a jump of 1.15% to 21,381.93 on the FTSE Mibtel.
Banks were outperforming on the Stoxx 600, with a gauge tracking the sector up by 0.92% to 139.89, while another linked to shares of Healthcare comapnies was off by 0.62% at 781.50.
To take note of, government bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic were falling rapidly on both the short and long ends of the interest rate curve, with those on 10-year German bunds down by four basis points at -0.04%.
In the background meanwhile, all eyes were on a slew of indicative votes in the UK Parliament, which were scheduled to start from 1900 GMT, to map out how lawmakers wished to proceed with the UK's withdrawal from the European Union and amid reports that MPs were taking a more constructive view towards the Prime Minister's proposed Brxit plans.
Ahead of those, the pound had reversed course to trade 0.14% higher to 1.1743 versus the single currency, with euro/dollar little changed, edging up by 0.03% to 1.12698.
US-China trade talks weren't far from traders' minds either, with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday having reportedly told Senator Marco Rubio that he would not settle for anything less than an "excellent deal".
America's Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, and Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, were set to travel to Beijing on Thursday for the next round of negotiations between the two economic powerhouses.
INSEE's French consumer confidence index edged higher in March to 96.0 after a reading of 95.0 in the month before.
Further south, ISTAT reported that its Italian consumer confidence index for that same month dropped to a level of 111.2 (consensus: 112.5), after a reading of 112.4 for the month before.
On the corporate side of things, mergers and acquisitions were again dominating the headlines after the Financial Times reported that French car-maker Renault was targeting taking up merger talks again - within the next 12 months - with Nissan Motor.
Swedbank was a top faller following allegations that the Nordic lender misled US authorities and that its Stockholm headquarters had been raided by Swedish regulators as part of a probe into further allegations of insider trading by its boss.