Europe close: Stocks rise despite wary investors, Dublin shares lead

Investors pushed the main stockmarket indices higher for another positive weekly close on the back of optimistic reports regarding the prospects for a US-China trade deal and much stronger-than-expected data out Asia's largest economy.

"European markets are ending the week on a positive note, while in New York the battle for 26,000 on the Dow and 2800 on the S&P 500 continues, as it has done all week," said IG's Chris Beauchamp.

"Fridays have been good days for markets of late, and investors are hoping that the same trick will be repeated today, with some ‘first day of the month’ inflows helping as well."

Nevertheless, according to Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, over the latest week investors yanked $4.1bn from funds investing in European shres, even as they $9.1bn to work in US equities - the biggest inflow in 23 weeks.

As an aside, on the other side of the Atlantic the main US equity gauges were attempting to reclaim their end-2018 levels.

By the end of the trading day, the benchmark Stoxx 600 had put on 0.39% to 374.24, alongside a 0.75% advance to 11,601.68 for the German Dax - which remained some 14% below its end-2017 highs - while the FTSE Mibtel managed to eke out a gain of 0.17% to 20,694.53.

But the standout gainer on the first day of the month was Dublin's ISEQ, which added 1.31% to 6,195.62 amid talk that a 'no deal' Brexit was increasingly unlikely.

Among the best performers on the pan-European Stoxx 600 by sectors, Autos&Parts ran-up 1.32% to finish at 507.87, while Chemicals pared an earlier gain to trade up 0.7% to 896.85.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures had reversed course and fell 2.1% to $64.97 a barrel, amid expectations that the heat wave washing over Europe would extend into mid-March, as did euro/dollar which was dipping 0.07% to 1.13675.

Overnight, citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that officials in Washington were preparing a final trade deal that the US and Chinese leaders could sign in weeks, although there was apparently an ongoing debate on Capitol Hill as to whether the Trump administration should push for more.

Triggering further buying, Caixin's factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index for February shot-up to 49.9 (consensus: 48.5) from January's level of 48.3.

The latest batch of euro area data was also broadly supportive of risk appetite, with Eurozone core CPI data for last month coming in below economists' forecasts, alongside a better-than-expected reading on joblessness in the bloc's largest economy, Germany.

Eurostat reported a slight pick-up in the year-on-year rate of consumer price gains in the single currency bloc, from January's level of 1.4% to 1.5%.

At the 'core' level on the other hand, the CPI rate slipped from 1.1% to 1.0%.

A separate report from Eurostat meanwhile revealed that unemployment at the Eurozone level was unchanged from the previous month's downwardly revised rate of 7.8% in January (consensus: 7.9%).

German unemployment meanwhile was reported at down by 21,000 for February (consensus: -5,000) when compared to the month before.

On the corporate side of things, shares in Italian luxury group Moncler jumped 11% on the heels of its full-year results.

Rheinmetall was close behind, rising 9% on the back of a 23% in its 2018 operating profits and a record order book in its defence arm.