Europe close: Stocks close well off lows despite FX volatility
A strong start to the day on Wall Street buoyed European stocks, offsetting the impact of a stronger euro and the somewhat contradictory headlines swirling around the European Central Bank and Bank of England.
At the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by just 0.04% to 385.82, alongside a fall of 0.19% to 12,647.27 for the German Dax and a dip of 0.11% to 5,252.90 in the Cac-40.
The FTSE Mibtel on the other hand had turned around to trade up by 1.24% or 256.94 points to 21,047.80.
Banks did well, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge clocking in with an advance of 1.37%.
The day before many analysts had interpreted a speech from ECB chief Mario Draghi as revealing a slightly more hawkish tone than in weeks and months prior.
Not at all said ECB vice-president Vitor Conbstancio on Wednesday. In his "personal" opinion, Draghi's remarks included no shift in the policy stance.
Constancio's remarks initially wiped out the single currency's gains, yet by the end of trading it was adding 0.31% to 1.1375.
On the other side of the Channel, another apparent shift in tone from governor Mark Carney himself also took traders by surprise, sending the pound hurtling notably higher.
Earlier in the day, a drop in the annual rate of harmonised Italian CPI from 1.4% in May to 1.2% in June had already knocked the single currency off its intra-day highs of 1.1391.
On a related note, following the release of that Italian data Barclays Research lowered its projection for euro area wide CPI in June from 1.4% to 1.3%, with downside risks.
Nevertheless, its forecast for the year-on-year rate of change in 'core' CPI was unchanged at 1.0%.
Front month Brent crude futures were also stronger, rising by 1.23% to $47.23 a barrel on the ICE after the US Department of Energy reported a 100,000 barrel drop last week in domestic oil output in the States.
On the economic front, French consumer confidence shot ahead in June, with INSEE's monthly gauge jumping from an upwardly revised reading of 103 for May to 108 in June, as Frenchmen cheered the prospect of economic reforms.
Spanish retail sales grew at a 2.4% year-on-year clip in May, ahead of analysts forecasts for a rise of 2.2%.
Euro area money supply (M3) growth edged up from 4.9% in April to 5.0% for May, as expected by economists.
To take note of, the US Federal Reserve was scheduled to publish the definitive stress test results for the nation's lenders, at 2130 BST.
Meanwhile, in corporate news, the Dutch government cashed in a 7% stake in ABN Amro for €1.48bn, selling 65.0m shares via an accelerated book-building process. It was left holding 63% of the lender's share capital.
Royal Philips inked a deal to takeover America's Spectranetics for $1.7bn.
Nestle unveiled a 20.0bn Swiss franc share buyback programme just days after US activist investor Third Point prodded management to make such a move.
S&P reaffirmed its short and long-term ratings on Intesa Sanpaolo's.
France's Legrand agreed to buy US infrastructure outfit Milestone AV Technologies for $950m.