European Shares Slightly Higher On China Optimism

(RTTNews) - European stocks were flat to slightly higher on Monday after rallying in the previous session on optimism surrounding China's reopening and expectations of slower rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

There was some cheer on the economic front, with German industrial production recovering at a faster than expected pace in November.

Industrial output grew 0.2 percent from October, when output was down by revised 0.4 percent, Destatis said. Production was expected to gain 0.1 percent.

The pan European STOXX 600 rose half a percent to 446.51 after gaining 1.2 percent on Friday.

The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both added around 0.2 percent while France's CAC 40 index was little changed with a positive bias.

Nordex AG, a German wind turbine maker, jumped 3.2 percent after saying it had received an order from a utility in the end of 2022 to supply and install ten N149/4.X turbines for a wind farm in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.

Ipsen fell about 1 percent after the French biopharmaceutical company entered into a merger deal with Albireo, a rare disease company focused on the development of bile acid modulators to treat pediatric and adult liver diseases.

Automaker Renault fell 1.6 percent as it announced the success of its Renaulution Shareplan for Group employees.

Telecom major Orange S.A. dropped 1.4 percent after it signed a memorandum of understanding with Canal+ Group, a mass media firm, to sell OCS pay TV package and Orange Studio, the film and series co-production arm.

Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore jumped 1-3 percent as China opened its borders for travel for the first time in three years as part of its new policy on COVID-19.

Oil & gas firm BP Plc added 1.3 percent and Shell rose 1.2 percent, tracking gains in crude oil prices.

Keller Group shares plunged 7 percent. The engineering contractor said it has identified a financial reporting fraud in its Austral Business Unit in Australia.

Vodafone dropped 1 percent. The telecom major has entered into a deal with 4iG Public Limited Company and Corvinus Zrt, a Hungarian state holding firm, to sell Vodafone Magyarország Zrt, for a cash consideration of HUF 660 billion or 1.7 billion euros.

Drug major AstraZeneca lost about 1 percent after it agreed to buy U.S. biotech CinCor Pharma.

Gaming firm Devolver Digital slumped 5.5 percent and Frontier Developments nosedived 40 percent after disappointing trading updates.