Europe close: Stocks gains as trade fears ease a little

Stocks jumped following reports that the Trump administration had decided to use solely existing legislation to curb Chinese investments in the country, foregoing the use of alternate methods.

By the close of trading, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index had gained 0.72% or 2.72 points to 379.79, Germany's DAX was 0.93% or 114.27 higher to 12,348.61 and France's CAC 40 was bounding ahead by 0.87% or 45.91 points to 5,327.20.

Gains on the periphery however were more measured, with Spain's Ibex 35 adding just 0.22% or 21.20 points to 9,658.60.

In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Bund was off by two basis point to 0.32%, with euro/dollar down 0.54% at 1.15844.

"Stocks are largely in positive territory as the fears surrounding trade tensions have cooled. It now appears the US are taking a less aggressive stance with China regarding investment, and traders are using this as an opportunity to go bargain hunting," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.

Energy-related shares were on the front foot, with the Stoxx 600 oil and gas index powering higher by 2.51% as oil prices rallied after US API data on Tuesday showed that crude stocks were down 9.2m barrels for the week ended 22 June, versus expectations for a 2.3m barrel draw.

Against that backdrop, front month Brent crude oil futures were tacking on 2.12% to $78.0 a barrel on the ICE.

At the individual company level, Imerys was a high riser after Exane BNP Paribas upgraded the French construction material group to 'outperform', but oil storage and distribution company Rubis was sharply lower after a downgrade to 'hold' at Berenberg.

Data released earlier showed that French consumer confidence fell to a near two-year low in June.

Insee's synthetic consumer confidence indicator dropped to 97 from a downwardly-revised 99 in May, missing analysts' expectations for a reading of 100 and marking the lowest level since August 2016.

Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said this was a "disappointingly weak" headline, extending the slide in headline consumer sentiment since the peak in May last year right after the election of Macron.

In Italy on the other hand, the consumer climate brightened significantly, with ISTAT's gauge jumping from 113.9 to 116.2 (Consensus: 113.1), while that for business confidence improved from 104.6 to 105.4.

According to the European Central Bank, the three-month rate of growth in private credit picked-up from 3.3% in April to 3.5%.