Europe close: Shares rise for third week led by defensives

European stocks closed higher for a third successive week with pharma among the top performers as Germany's finance minister appeared to provide a degree of support to calls for fiscal transfers in the euro area.

At the closing bell the Stoxx 600 was up by 0.31% to 395.63 as the Dax gained 0.47% to 12,770.41 and the Cac-40 0.41% to 5,405.42.

Nevertheless, it was defensives that led gains, with the Stoxx 600 sub-index for pharmaceutical companies rising 1.67% to 804.08 with AstraZeneca pacing the advance.

Miners were weaker, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 sector gauge declining 1.55% on the heels of another retreat in the price of iron ore overnight.

Euro/dollar ended up by 0.45% to 1.0916 alongside a 0.3% dip in front month Brent crude oil futures to $50.63 a barrel on the ICE.

In remarks to Der Spiegel, Germany's finance chief, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the country's burgeoning current account surplus of over 8% was was in part the result of the currency union.

The other main factor, of course, was the high competitiveness of German industry.

However, Schaeuble cautioned it would decline in coming years, stressing that it was not the result of politics.

In another positive development, French nominal wage gains accelerated to a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter clip at the start of 2017, easily outstripping forecasts for a rise of 0.2%.

However, at the wider euro area level industrial production dipped by 0.1% month-on-month in March (consensus: 0.4%), according to Eurostat.

Earlier in the session, Germany's finance ministry announced that real German gross domestic product expanded by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter over the first three months of 2017, as expected.

That came alongside figures showing an annual rise of 2.0% in harmonised consumer prices in the euro area's largest economy during the month of April.

Meanwhile, data out Stateside revealed the rate of growth in consumer prices decreased from 2.4% year-on-year in March to 2.2% for April (consensus: 2.3%).

"Weakness in today’s US CPI figures is probably accounting for a degree of nervousness on Wall Street, since it calls into question the strength of the Fed’s hiking path," mused IG's Chris Beauchamp in a note sent to clients following the release of the data.

Also worth noting, overnight Morgan Stanley trimmed the odds it assigns to a US recession scenario this year from 30% to 25%, although it should be noted that the latter continues to be high by historical standards. In July 2016 the investment bank pegged the chances of a downturn this year at 40%.

AstraZeneca announced its durvalumab immuno-oncology drug has become the first such medicine to successfully treat advanced lung cancer patients who had not had success with chemotherapy, sending its shares bounding 5% higher.

Shares in Richemont were among the worst performers on the Stoxx 600 after the Swiss luxury goods maker reported a 4% drop in annual sales.

French media group Vivendi on the other hand moved higher after offering to take Group Bollore's near 60% stake in Havas off its hands.