Europe close: Stocks end off session lows, led by healthcare, banks

Gains in healthcare and banks helped offset losses in miners amid stronger-than-expected economic data on both sides of the Pond and speculation of a slightly more hawkish bias from the European Central Bank and (possibly) the Federal Reserve.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 slipped 0.04% to 389.37, as Germany's Dax eked out a rise of 0.16% to 12,527.84 and the Cac-40 gave back a slight 0.06% to finish at 5,301.00.

Defensive issues such as Healthcare stocks included in the pan-European Stoxx 600 added 0.55% as a group, alongside a 0.51% advance in lenders' shares. Basic Resources companies on the other hand fell 1.01%.

Gross domestic product in the euro area expanded at a quarter-on-quarter clip of 0.5% in the first three months of 2017, as expected by economists.

However, an upwards revision from 0.4% to 0.5% for the prior three-month stretch led some top-ranked economists to mull the possibility they might need to mark up their 2017 growth projections for the single currency bloc.

"We have been forecasting Eurozone growth of 1.7% in 2017, but there now looks to be a genuine chance it could get closer to 2%.

"The healthy first-quarter Eurozone growth performance reinforces belief that the ECB will likely drop the reference to lower interest rates in its forward guidance at its June meeting," said Dr. Howard Archer, chief UK+European economist at IHS Markit.

A better-than-expected reading on the state of the US factory sector in April, courtesy of the ISM institute, also buttressed sentiment.

Acting as a backdrop, it was all about elections, on both sides of the Channel.

The two French presidential candidates remaining, Emmanuele Macron and Marine Le Pen, were set to face-off in a televised debate on Wednesday night, in an encounter that was billed by economists at Barclays Research as potentially "crucial".

"Given the [7 May second-round] vote takes place during a bank holiday weekend, there is a risk we could see higher-than-usual rates of abstention/nil votes, so both candidates will be especially keen to gain momentum.

"Together with the final results, it could also have crucial ramifications for the legislative election rounds, which remain highly uncertain according to estimates."

No change in policy was expected from the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday night after its second day of meetings, although analysts and traders were somewhat mixed in their views regarding the potential for a slightly more hawkish sounding post-meeting statement.

After the close of trading, the Prime Minister reacted angrily to reports that the European Union had raised its estimate of the eventual 'Brexit bill' for Britain to up to €100.0bn, accusing Brussels of trying to influence the June elections.

In corporate news, shares of Novo Nordisk were catapulted higher by the company's stronger than expected first quarter earnings report.

Miners were lower amid simmering concerns around the impact tighter scrutiny and policies against so-called 'shadow banking' activities in Asia's largest economy might have on some commodity prices and demand for real estate.

China's HNA Group increased its stake in Deutsche Bank to 9.9%, according to a source close to the lender, Reuters said.

In other news related to the German financial group, the head of the lender's capital markets division told Boersen-Zeitung he is worried about the prospect of being cut off from the London Clearing House following Brexit.

Volkswagen reported a 44% jump in first quarter profits.

BNP Paribas said profits rose 4.4% in the first three months of 2017.