Europe open: Shares make strong start as earnings please

European markets made a strong start to the final session of the week as another raft of strong corporate earnings drove sentiment.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 1% with all major bourses following suit after positive Wall Street and Asia sessions.

US stock futures pointed to a mixed open on Friday in early pre-market trade, with Nasdaq futures pulling back after Amazon’s and Apple’s quarterly results disappointed.

On the data front, the French economy stagnated in the first quarter of the year as weak domestic demand continued despite an easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

The euro zone’s second-largest economy was unchanged following growth of 0.8% in the final quarter of 2021, with economists expecting a quarterly

In equity news, Dutch investment group Prosus, which owns a 29% stake in Tencent, tracked the Chinese tech giant’s rise on Friday after China said it would implement measures to aid the development of its platform economy.

German consumer goods group Henkel slid more than 7% after cutting its 2022 profit forecast on the back of rising material costs as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Dutch food and biochemicals group Corbion fell after releasing quarterly results.