Europe midday: Stocks rise on hopes of Brexit clarity, as IFO bumps up forecasts
European stocks are pushing towards five-month highs as investors spy a possible light at the end of the tunnel in talks between London and Brussels.
Overnight, the British parliament voted in favour of avoiding a so-called 'hard Brexit' under all scenarios and was expected to request an extension to Article 50 later on Thursday, although in remarks to ITV one member of the pro-Brexit European Research group suggested that hardliners might still be able to force a 'no-deal Brexit'.
And on Thursday morning, according to some commentators' interpretation, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, suggested on social media that the bloc would push for a one-year extension to the UK's withdrawal, instead of a shorter one, prompting some analysts in the City to wonder out loud how that might impact on Parliament's decision-making.
Against that backdrop, IG's Chris Beauchamp said: "The UK continues its journey through Brexit purgatory, as Parliament votes on a possible extension. Already EU president Tusk has smiled on the idea, though his talk of a long extension and thus a possible second referendum might prompt some hardline Brexiteers to switch sides. An extension is all but assured, now it is more of a question of for how long."
As of 1212 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.67% to 378.12, alongside a 0.66% gain for the Cac-40 to 5,340.39 and an advance of 0.73% to 20,901.77 for the FTSE Mibtel.
In parallel, euro/dollar was dipping 0.25% to 1.12987 and front month Brent crude oil futures were adding 0.6% to $67.93 a barrel on the ICE.
To take note of, the Continent's main stockmarket indices were rising despite reports that a trade deal between the US and China will not materialise until April - at the earliest - and news that Germany's most prestigious economic think-tank had taken an axe to its forecast for the rate of growth in the country's GDP in 2019.
Regarding the latter, Germany's IFO institute slashed its forecast for the country's economic growth in 2019 from 1.1% to 0.6%, although it did raise its projection for 2020 to 1.8%.
In other economic news, INSEE revised higher its initial estimate for French harmonised consumer prices in February from a preliminary reading of 1.5% year-on-year to 1.6% (consensus: 1.5%).
Over in Germany on the other hand, the Federal Office of Statistics confirmed a previous estimate showing a 1.7% rate of increase for harmonised CPI during that same month.