Europe midday: Shares hold gains as eurozone CPI softens

European shares extended gains on Friday as US GDP was revised upwards and eurozone inflation softened.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 1.12% at midday with all regional bourses higher.

In economic news, Inflation pressures in the single currency bloc ebbed in June. According to Eurostat, the headline rate of euro area consumer price increases slowed from the 6.1% year-on-year pace observed in May to 5.5% for June, as expected.

At the core level on the other hand, the annual CPI rate edged up from 5.3% to 5.4%, although economists too had correctly anticipated that.

In comparison to the month before, energy prices were the main drag, falling by 0.7% while prices for non-energy industrial goods dipped by 0.1%.

Services prices however increased by 0.6% and those for food, alcohol and tobacco by 0.4%.

Headline and core CPI both rose by 0.3% versus May.

China’s factory activity data stayed in contraction territory for the month of June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ latest purchasing managers’ index reading.

The PMI came in at 49, below the 50-mark that separates contraction and growth for the third consecutive month. May's reading stood at 48.8, the lowest since December.

"The strength of the banks during the annual stress test, which plots a parlous scenario to estimate the banks’ ability to cope, is of significant relief to the strength of the system and also its stability following the more recent banking turmoil," said Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter.

"With the half-year reporting season now imminent, thoughts will turn to how companies generally fared amid such a turbulent time and whether their guidance will have been altered as a result."

Investors are now waiting for US Personal Consumption Expenditure data for May as well as preliminary figures on euro zone inflation later in the day.

In equity news, shares in LEG Immobilien surged to the top of the Stoxx as the German property company raised its outlook for 2023.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com