Europe midday: Stocks rise as traders hope for best on Brexit

Stocks are trading slightly higher amid a relative dearth of news, albeit with analysts trying to make sense of the implications of Tuesday night's vote in the British Parliament, which saw the Prime Minister's Brexit plans rejected by over two thirds of lawmakers.

"European equity markets are mixed this morning as political and economic uncertainty continues. Asian markets didn't move much overnight as traders are still waiting to find out the final details of the US-China trade meeting that finished last week. The absence of new news has prompted some traders to sit on their hands," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.

"Now that Theresa May's deal has been voted down, a major amount of political uncertainty exists as there is no clear strategy for what the UK will do between now and late March. Unless politicians can cobble together a new deal, and back that, the UK is set to leave the EU without a deal, and that would put pressure on the markets."

As of 1359 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.30% or 1.03 points at 349.75, alongside a rise of 0.80% or 153.41 points to 19,320.19 for the FTSE Mibtel.

The German Dax meanwhile was edging up by 0.06% or 6.17 points to 10,897.83.

Nevertheless, Sterling was up by 0.19% to 1.1289 against the single currency, holding onto the majority of the prior session's gains, with many traders having apparently judged that the risk of a so-called 'hard Brexit' had decreased.

There were was little in terms of fresh market-moving economic news out of the euro area on Wednesday.

German and Italian harmonised consumer prices were confirmed at up by 1.7% and 1.2% year-on-year in December, respectively. That was down from readings of 2.3% and 1.6% for the prior month.

Meanwhile, in Italy, ISTAT reported that industrial orders shrank at a 0.2% month-on-month pace in November.