Europe midday: UBS profits boost banks as Stoxx rallies

European markets made a bright start to Tuesday amid more earnings reports with UBS shares up on strong first-quarter results.

The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was up 0.72% at 511.87. Britain's FTSE 100 hit another intra-day high and was up 1.06% at midday to 8,300.

"The FTSE 100 has returned from its long weekend with a bang, as the index hit yet another record high thanks to a wide-reaching risk-on surge that pushed the bourse 1% higher in early trade," said Market Scope analyst Joshua Mahony.

"Recent strength has largely taken place on the back of the financials and commodities sectors, but today has seen the vast majority of the index in the green as indices continue to feed off the back of Friday’s US jobs report."

In economic news, Germany reported an unexpected 0.9% rise in exports in March compared with the previous month, according to official data.

The figure beat expectations of a 0.4% increase and was also 1.2% higher year on year. Imports rose 0.3% to €111.9bn and were down 3.0% on the same month a year earlier.

In March, Europe's largest economy saw increases in exports to EU member states and third countries, by 0.5% and 1.3% respectively.

In a separate release, the Federal Statistics Office reported an unexpected decline in industrial orders in March, which fell by 0.4% on the previous month.

In equity news, Swiss banking giant UBS beat expectations as it returned to a quarterly net profit after two successive losses.

German software developer TeamViewer posted first-quarter revenue slightly below market expectations, sending its shares down nearly 4% in early trade.

BP reported a fall in first-quarter profit on the back of lower oil and gas prices, an outage at a US refinery and “significantly weaker” fuels margins as it also started a $1.75bn share buyback.

UniCredit gained 3.1% as it raised its investor reward guidance after posting a much higher-than-expected profit and boosting capital levels.

Germany's Zalando gained 6.9% after delivering a better-than-expected first-quarter operating profit.

Spirits makers Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard jumped after Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly expressed an "open attitude" towards a trade dispute over French cognac.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com