Europe close: Stocks edge higher in quiet session, Italian lenders lower

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index edged up by 0.18%, France’s CAC 40 by 0.17% and the Dax by another 0.09%.

“It’s been a slow start to trading on Friday, with yesterday’s bank holiday in the US weighing heavily on volumes and a severe lack of news flow leaving markets void of any significant catalysts,” said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

Oil prices declined rapidly folowing reports that Saudi Arabia would not attend a technical meeting between OPEC and producer countries from outside the cartel.

West Texas Intermediate fell 3.12% to $46.55 a barrel and Brent crude was 2.8% weaker at $47.66.

Meanwhile, and on the political front in Europe, French presidential candidates François Fillon and Alain Juppé went head to head in a television debate on Thursday night, with the former seen as the winner ahead of a vote on Sunday which will decide who will be the French right candidate in next year's election.

In corporate news, Actelion surged following a report that US healthcare group Johnson & Johnson has made a takeover bid for the company.

Troubled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena on the other hand slumped even in the wake of news that shareholders had approved a $5.3bn capital increase.

"Italian finance minister Padoan was at pains to reassure investors that his recapitalisation would work, which is never a good omen. The fact that he needed to say it is a warning all by itself to steer well clear. Markets would seem to agree driving the share price sharply lower," mused CMC Markets chief analyst Michael Hewson.

The bank´s shares cratered 13.08% dragging the Stoxx 600´s sub-index of lenders´ shares down by 0.57%.

BHP Billiton dipped after earlier gains. It announced that it and its Brazilian joint venture partner Vale have approved $181m to fund remediation and compensation programs at the Samarco iron ore project after a dam burst a year ago.

Remy Cointreau was on the front foot as Berenberg lifted the stock to ‘hold’.

In London, AstraZeneca was in the black after an upgrade by Liberum, but Daily Mail slid as Barclays downgraded its stance on the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘equalweight’.

Earlier, data from the INSEE statistics agency showed French consumer confidence was stable at 98 points in in November, sticking to its highest level in more than nine years and in line with consensus forecasts.

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: “The sub-indices in this survey have shown very little movement in the past few months, but the direction this month was an improvement at the margin. Consumers’ outlook for their financial situation and standard living rose, while purchasing intentions remained unchanged at a high level.

“In addition, households’ employment expectations also rose. Finally, inflation expectations also edged higher. Overall, these data suggest that household consumption will rebound in Q4, after two weak quarters."

Over in Italy, ISTAT reported that Italian retail sales weakened by 1.4% year-on-year in September (consensus: -0.1%), while industrial orders shrank by 6.8% over the month.