Europe midday: Stocks creep higher as investors react to PMIs and high court ruling

European stocks edged higher after positive manufacturing data showed a good start to 2017 for the bloc and Britain’s High Court ruled that a vote from Parliament is required for the government to invoke Article 50.

At midday, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.22%, Germany’s DAX was 0.25% higher and France’s CAC 40 was up 0.15%.

Meanwhile oil prices were broadly flat with West Texas Intermediate up 0.02% and Brent crude down 0.15% to $52.76 and $55.15 per barrel respectively.

Markit’s eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 55.1 from 54.9 in the previous month, exceeding analysts’ estimates for a reading of 54.8, the highest it’s been in over five years.

Eurozone services PMI, however, fell to 53.6 in January from 53.7, below projections for a level of 53.9.

This brought down the eurozone composite PMI, a measure of both manufacturing and services activity, to 54.3 this month from 54.4 in December, below the consensus forecast of 54.5.

Economist at Berenberg Florian Hense said: “PMIs for the Eurozone and its major economies remained stable at a high level at the start of the year after strong gains in recent months. The largest monthly rise in employment since February 2008 is most encouraging while optimism for the year ahead rose to the highest since July 2012.

“Continued gains in demand should gradually reduce the slack in the economy, helping to reduce the still high unemployment rate of 9.8%. Although confidence among Eurozone firms remains high, input prices increased by the biggest amount in more than five years.”

On the corporate front, German software company SAP was in the red despite it raising its earnings outlook after the expanding takeup of its cloud-based business boosted fourth-quarter results.

Easyjet shares plummeted after reporting a drop in first quarter unit revenue as the effects of a weak sterling and fuel prices were worse than expected.

BT was under the cosh as it cut its profit guidance for the next two years after an investigation discovered accounting errors at the telecoms giant's Italian business led to increased write-downs, which comes on top of a deterioration in outlook for its UK public sector arm.

Assicurazioni Generali SpA gained after buying voting rights worth 3.01% of lender Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's share capital, in to defend itself against the bank purchasing large stake in itself.