European shares held gains at midday on Friday, driven by hopes of a strong US recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and positive UK retail sales data.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.66 with all regional bourses higher. Investors reacted positively to better-than-expected weekly jobless claims and accelerating vaccinations in the US.
“The US jobs market continues to show signs of strength: initial unemployment claims fell to 684,000 last week, the lowest since the start of the crisis a year ago,” said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.
“Nonfarm payrolls next Friday ought to show another handsome rise in new jobs in March similar to the +379K print last time. UK retail sales bounced back in February, rising 2.1%. Online rose to make up a record 36.1% of all sales but overall retail sales were down 3.7% from a year ago.”
There was an added boost for investors as UK retail sales also came in above expectations. Retail sales rose 2.1% on the month in February, in line with consensus expectations and compared to an 8.2% slump the month before.
In equity news, shares in UK insurer Aviva rose after the company sold its Polish unit to Allianz for 2.4bn. Allianz shares were also higher.
Smiths Group gained after it increased its interim dividend and said it was confident about meeting expectations for annual results as profit fell in the first half.
London-listed copper miner Kaz Minerals rose 2.9% after it received a final bid worth £4.02bn from Nova Resources.
Miners rose on higher metals prices while oil giants Shell and BP were on the rise as oil prices pushed up on concerns that a ship blocking the Suez Canal could squeeze crude supplies.
