Europe midday: Stocks hold higher ahead of U.S. CPI

Stocks in Europe were holding in the green ahead of the keenly awaited release of July consumer price data in the U.S..

"The slowdown in China does raise the risk that central banks might over play their hand when it comes to further rate hikes, while any indication that inflation might start to baseline and turn higher could well complicate matters further as the Federal Reserve decides as to whether it has done enough, or whether they need to hike again in September," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"This makes today’s US CPI for July and tomorrow's PPI numbers extremely important in the decision-making process."

Against that backdrop, as of 1128 BST, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.33% higher at 462.11, alongside a 0.31% gain for the German Dax to 15,902.04 and an advance of 0.75% to 28,520.88 for the FTSE Mib.

Dutch TTF natural gas futures were dipping by 1% to €38.83/MWh, having surged during the previous session due to the risk of strikes in the sector Down Under that might threaten winter supplies.

The US CPI report was scheduled to be published at 1330 BST, alongside weekly unemployment claims data.

German insurer Allianz posted better-than-expected second quarter operating profits of €3.78bn, lifting its shares by 3%.

Henkel's delivered first half organic sales of 4.8%, which were ahead of analysts' estimates, alongside stronger-than-expected operating margins of 11.5%, for a 1% rise in the share price.