Europe open: Markets mostly higher on luxury goods merger talk
European stocks were largely higher in early trade on Thursday as merger talk in the luxury goods sector boosted sentiment, although Germany's DAX was hit by disappointing factory order data.
At 0852 GMT, the Stoxx 600 was up by 0.2% at 403.78, as Germany's Dax fell 0.1% to 13,128.38 and the French CAC 40 rose by 0.3% to 5,815.88. London's FTSE 100 was down by 0.3% at 7,168.34.
Data released by the Deutsche Bundesbank showed that German factory orders fell 0.4% in October following a revised 1.5% increase in September, missing expectations for a 0.3% rise.
On the year, factory orders declined 5.5% following a revised 5% drop the month before. However, this was better than the 6.1% drop expected.
Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Claus Vistesen said: "Overall, it is still just about possible to tell a story of 'stabilisation' in these data, at least insofar goes that the year-over-year growth rate is not crashing anymore. That said, stabilisation at around -5% isn’t exactly anything to write home about, and the main story remains one of very weak demand conditions.
"Base effects will get much better for the year-over-year rate in Q1, but for now, the outlook for the Q4 hard data is for more weakness."
Among individual stocks, luxury jacket and ski wear maker Moncler surged after a Bloomberg report claimed that France’s Kering could be interested in buying the company. Other luxury stocks followed suit, with Burberry and Hermes also in the green.
Konecranes climbed after the Finnish crane manufacturer agreed to buy the outstanding 50% stake in its South East Asian MHE-Demag joint venture for around €147m.
Dutch offshore oil and gas specialist SBM Offshore was also higher after signing contracts for construction projects with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Offshore and China Merchants Industry Holdings.
(Writing by Frank Prenesti and Michele Maatouk; Editing by Michele Maatouk)