Europe close: Stocks up despite wariness about premature lockdown liftings

Lenders' shares paced the advance on the Continent as the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths continued to slow in most countries, paving the way for governments to gradually ease their lockdown measures.

But in Germany the head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, Lothar Wieler, warned that the virus's reproduction rate had recovered from 0.7 to 1.0 since lockdowns had started being lifted, prompting him to urge Germans to maintain social-distancing as much as possible.

On that note, Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid told clients: "In a week where we’ll likely to hear a lot more about exit strategies, it feels from our numbers that Western economies are likely to start re-opening when they still have new cases emerging," Reid said.

And in the background, the World Health Organisation warned of the epidemic's expansion in the southern hemisphere and Eastern Europe.

By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 1.68% higher to 341.09, alongside a rise of 1.71% to 17,677.15 for the FTSE Mibtel.

Shares of lenders did especially well, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge jumping 4.86%.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were up 0.39% higher at $20.1 barrel on the ICE.

INSEE's index of French consumer confidence held up better than expected in April, printing at 95.0 after a reading of 103.0 for March (consensus: 83,0), but only due to a rise in a sub-index for expected inflation which appeared to be tracking the expected cost for the goods in greatest demand.

Yet subdindices tracking expectations for unemployment and personal finances worsened dramatically.

Santander stock was up 5% even after the lender posted a record €3.9bn of provisions during the first quarter that saw its profits crater 82%.

Lufthansa shares were active too, finishing a volatile session a tad lower, as the airline negotiated an €8bn package with the German state amid reports that it might file for court protection if it cannot clinch an agreement.

On the pandemic front, overnight Italy's civil protection service reported that the number of daily new infections rose by just 1,739 on Monday from the day before, the smallest daily increase since 10 March.

Stateside meanwhile, the daily rate of increase in new cases fell to 2.3%, the slowest pace since 1 April, and an increasing number of states were moving to gradually ease lockdowns.