Europe midday: Shares maintain gains as investors ponder China trade data

European shares maintained gains at midday on Monday as investors assessed a strong rise in China's trade surplus.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.86% with all major bourses higher. Investors will now turn their attention to US inflation data later in the week.

Sentiment was also boosted after China reported a record trade surplus for July thanks to strong export growth.

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.

Despite the positive tone, analysts struck a cautious note about the Chinese data.

"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 3.3% 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.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com