Europe midday: Stocks rebound ahead of key risk events

European stocks were mostly higher in early trading following a soft start to the week and ahead of multiple key risk events the next day, including the UK elections and US FBI director James Comey's testimony before a senate panel.

As of 1142 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.62% to 391.80, alongside gains of 0.95% to 5,319.33 for the Cac-40 and a rise of 0.99% or 205.53 points to 20,964.22 for the FTSE Mibtel.

Against that backdrop, all eyes were on Spanish lenders following news that Santander had picked up troubled rival Banco Popular for a symbolic €1. However, in parallel, Santander announced a fresh capital raise of €7.0bn in order to buttress Popular's balance sheet.

The day before, the Single Resolution Board had judged that Popular was either failing or likely to do so.

The Stoxx 600's gauge of lenders shares was up by 1.23% at 181.72.

In parallel, euro/dollar slipped 0.56% to 1.1213 on the heels of a slate of weak economic data, while front month Brent crude futures were down by 0.7% to $49.77 a barrel on the ICE.

German factory orders shrank by 2.1% on the month in April (consensus: -0.3%), according to the country's Ministry of Finance.

Spanish industrial production edged higher by 0.1% month-on-month in April and was 0.7% higher versus the same month one year ago.

Economists had expected a rise of 0.5% on the month and 1.2% on the year.

Italian retail sales volumes were flat in April when compared to the prior month (consensus: 0.2%).

German utility groups E.On, RWE and EnBW were all higher ahead of an expected court ruling, on Wednesday, regarding whether they will recoup roughly €6bn in taxes paid for their use of nuclear fuel rods.

BNP Paribas was also in the news after the Belgian state lowered its stake in the lender to 7.74%.

Bayer was moving lower after announcing that it had cut its stake in chemicals subsidiary Covestro from 53.3% to 44.8%.