Europe close: Stocks up in quiet start to the week

European shares began the week on the front foot on a relatively quiet day for economic reports and company earnings.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.84% to 13,687.69 with all major bourses higher. Investors will now turn their attention to US inflation data due out on Wednesday.

"The calendar of both macro events and earnings has eased off after the frenetic pace of the past few weeks, which tends to give a helping hand to stocks on their upward path," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp

"But US CPI this week could be the trigger for another drop, so late-comers to the rally need to be fairly nimble at this point."

Figures for China's foreign trade surplus in June did surprise to the upside with another record reading, although economists were expecting that it would ebb over the remainder of 2022.

Exports grew 18% year-on-year in the month, coming in comfortably ahead of analysts’ expectations for a 14% jump. Imports rose 2.3% year-on-year in July, however, missing expectations of 4% growth.

"Exports held up well last month, thanks to a backlog of orders still being cleared. But it won’t be long before shipments drop back on cooling foreign demand," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics. "Meanwhile, imports continued to trend down, pointing to further domestic weakness."

In equity news, French utility company Veolia rose 2.0% as it confirmed it would sell Suez's UK waste business to Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd for around €2.4bn.

UK financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown surged after upgrades from Deutsche Bank and Barclays.