Europe midday: Investors hold their nerve despite uncertainties on Brexit, US-China trade

Stocks on the Continent are putting in slight gains, even as the fog of uncertainty over Tuesday night's Brexit votes in the British parliament thickens.

Investors were also looking past fresh negative headlines around Chinese tech champion Huawei, after the US went ahead overnight an asked Ottawa to extradite the company's finance chief, who had been detained on bail in Canada, the day before he second round of trade talks with Beijing are set to begin.

On that note, the Tuesday editorial of China's The Global Times read: "Many commentators consider that this case has stuck Ottawa in the middle of Washington and Beijing. The truth is that they knew the geopolitics in the case from the very beginning, but were afraid to point them out. As a Chinese folk saying goes, 'You cannot live the life of a whoxx and expect a monument to your chastity'."

On the flip side, China had just kicked-off a legal process that would see the WTO hear Beijing's challenge to US tariffs.

As of 1149 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was climbing by 0.66% or 2.33 points to 356.70, alongside a gain of 0.61% or 29.82 points for the Cac-40 to 4,918.19 and a rise of 0.46% or 41.60 points to 9,104.0 for the Ibex 35.

Meanwhile, Germany's Dax was edging up by 0.04% or 4.76 points to 11,2215.07, alongside an advance of 0.30% or 59.11 points to 19,667.87 on the FTSE Mibtel.

Commenting on the news around Huawei and their likely implication, Josh Mahony at IG said: "This comes as a kick in the teeth to those hoping for relations between the two countries to strengthen enough to bring about a breakthrough at this week's trade talks."

Driving gains on the French bourse, INSEE reported that its index for consumer confidence in the euro area's second-largest economy jumped from a reading of 86.0 in the month of December to 91.0 for last month.

According to the statistics office, in the wake of their President's recent pledges to reduce taxes and raise the minimum wage, Frenchmen now judged their personal financial situation and purchasing power much more positively.

Norwegian Air Shuttle shares were trading sharply lower after the embattled company announced a $353m rights issue to avoid falling afoul of its financial covenants.