Europe close: Stocks rise on banks amid expectations of Dodd-Frank rules review

European stocks ended Friday on a positive note as banks zipped north on expectations US President Donald Trump will order a review of Dodd-Frank bank rules with a view to relaxation.

Trump is set to ink yet another executive order, this one potentially easing the harsher components of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, introduced to avoid financial meltdowns such as that seen in 2008-2009. Critics say the act is overly restrictive.

At 16:50 GMT, the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.65% to 364.17. Germany's DAX was up 0.32% to 11,664.84, and France's CAC 40 gained 0.81% to 4832.94. Same time, the FTSE 100 was up 0.81% to 7198.28.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, noted the positive close to what had been a choppy week for European equities.

He pinned this in part to the Dodd-Frank expectations -- which had proved a boon for banking stocks -- but also to a better than expected US January jobs report.

"The headline number (of the jobs report) of 227k came in well above expectations of 180k, but this really shouldn’t have been a surprise given the bumper ADP report seen earlier this week."

He further observed that also enjoyed an uptick thanks to fairly resilient services PMI data for the UK, euro zone, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Meantime, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude were both up.

Investors were also reacting to earlier news that China has lifted short-term interest rates, while that country's Caixin manufacturing PMI eased more than expected in January.

This put a dent in several three-month industrial metals prices, and also weighed on the shares of multiple metals diggers.

"The mining sector has had a rather disappointing session today helped by a disappointing Chinese manufacturing survey, as well as slight tightening of money market rates by Chinese authorities," said Hewson.

"It's not immediately clear what prompted this action, though there is speculation about rising concerns about a property bubble, and this slight rise could well be an attempt to warn that tighter policy is on the way."

On the data front, retail sales in the 19 countries that share the euro currency unexpectedly fell in December, latest figures from Eurostat revealed. Sales were down 0.3% on the month, missing expectations for a 0.3% increase.

The eurozone economy kicked off the year on a firm footing, with output growth in January maintained at December’s five-and-a-half year high, and job creation at a nine-year high.

IHS Markit’s final composite purchasing managers’ index was unchanged in January from December’s reading of 54.4, but up a touch from the flash estimate of 54.3.