European stocks rise as bank gains offset U.S. recession jitters – Reuters

April 6 (Reuters) – European stocks rose on Thursday ahead of a long Easter weekend pause as real estate and travel stocks helped trump concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown triggered by lackluster data.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.5%, posting its third straight weekly gain, with bank stocks (.SX7P) among the biggest risers.

After a strong start to the year, European equities have remained under selling pressure since last month as recent banking turmoil has weakened risk sentiment, with jittery investors worrying about mixed economic data and a recession. imminent.

Markets still expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue its rate hikes at the next policy meeting.

“With ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane warning that food price inflation in the EU continues to rise, pressure is mounting for further rate hikes from the ECB in the coming weeks. coming,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

Economic data in the United States suggests that the labor market is feeling the effects of the series of hawkish interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in its attempt to cool the economy and, in the process, rein in inflation.

Investors will keep a close eye on a key U.S. jobs report due Friday for more clues on the outlook for global interest rates.

Back in the euro zone, German industrial production rose significantly more than expected in February, partly thanks to vehicle manufacturing, up 2% from the previous month.

Real estate stocks (.SX86P) led the sector gains, up 2.7%.

Among individual stocks, Shell (SHEL.L) rose 2.3% as the oil and gas giant expects higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in the first quarter after outages at its factories. Australians last year.

Temenos AG (TEMN.S) rose 1.7% after reports suggested the company sought further expressions of interest from potential suitors in recent weeks after takeover talks collapsed last year on the price.

Shares of Zurich Insurance Group (ZURN.S) gained 1.9% as the group announced it was pulling out of the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), becoming the second founding member to leave the climate group in less than a week.

Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) edged up 0.7% after Switzerland asked the bank to cancel or reduce all outstanding bonus payments for the three main management levels.

The markets will be closed on Friday and Monday due to Good Friday and Easter holidays.

Reporting by Shubham Batra and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Andrew Heavens

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