Europe Markets
Banks, Chinese data pull European stocks higher
Published: Oct. 14, 2016 at 12:14 p.m. ET
Carla Mozee
Victor Reklaitis
Stoxx Europe 600 finishes slightly higher for the week
Italy's in the spotlight Friday with banking shares on the rise.
SXXP
European stocks stepped higher Friday, as bank shares rose and mining stocks got a lift from upbeat inflation news out of China.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.63% bounced up 1.3% to finish at 339.95. Financial stocks XX:SXFR were among the leading advancers.
The moves erased the market's weekly loss, leaving the pan-European index up 0.1% for the week. On Thursday, it sank 0.9%, rattled by disappointing Chinese trade data.
Economic data out of China on Friday were more upbeat. Consumer price inflation rose more strongly than expected to 1.9%, while producer prices edged up 0.1% in September. That marks the first time the factory-price gauge has been positive in more than four years.
"Rising prices for both consumer and producers was something that the [People's Bank of China] was trying to trigger for a while," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, in a note.
"This is a positive sign for commodities, as it confirms a sign of stability for the global demand also," he added.
Among mining shares, Boliden AB BOL, -1.99% added 0.7%, iron ore and copper producer Anglo American PLC AAL, -2.40% picked up 1.6%, and steel producer ArcelorMittal SA MT, -2.04% advanced 1.6%.
Meanwhile, bank shares rose, with Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna BPE, +0.99% up 5.2%. The Italian lender has sold a 618 million-euro portfolio of bad loans, Reuters reported, and it will hold a shareholder vote this weekend on a proposed merger with Banca Popolare di Milano IT:PMI . Milano's shares rose 6.1%.
In other moves, shares of Man Group PLC EMG, -0.04% rallied 14% after the investment firm said it plans to buy back up to $100 million of its own stock. It reported it had 6% more funds under management at the end of September, compared with three months earlier.
Indexes: Germany's DAX 30 DAX, -0.55% added 1.6% to close at 10,580.38, while Italy's FTSE MIB XX:I945 popped up 2% to 16,591.37.
France's CAC 40 PX1, -0.52% was up 1.5% to 4,470.92, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 UKX, -0.61% rose 0.5% to end at 7,013.55.
The euro EURUSD, -0.25% was trading at $1.0993, down from $1.1053 late Thursday. The British pound traded at $1.2218, down from $1.2251 late Thursday.
Later Friday, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak in Boston, while European trading is closed.
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Carla Mozée is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in London. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.
Victor Reklaitis is MarketWatch's Money & Politics reporter and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining MarketWatch, he served as an assistant editor and reporter at Investor's Business Daily. Before IBD, he worked for several newspapers in Virginia. Follow Victor on Twitter at: @vicrek.