Europe midday: Stocks steady ahead of key EU leaders meeting
Shares in Europe were mostly higher on Thursday, with investors looking past a horribly weak reading on the euro area's services sector ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders scheduled for later in the day.
"If you had told an investor on 1 January that, within a few months, global PMIs would dive to a fraction of their previous level, they would have thought you mad," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.
"What is equally confusing perhaps is the way markets seem to have taken today’s incredible readings in their stride, or at least in a relatively calm fashion."
Against that backdrop, as of 1230 GMT the pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.26% higher to 331.02, alongside a 0.12% dip on the German Dax to 10,403.41 while the FTSE Mibtel was adding 0.92% to 16,919.20.
Significantly, front month Brent crude oil futures were bouncing back by 7.27% to $21.96 a barrel on the ICE, although euro/dollar was down by 0.43% at 1.0777.
In another positive development, Italian 10-year debt was trading on the front foot, pushing yields down by six basis points to 2.04%.
Earlier, IHS Markit's services sector Purchasing Managers' Index for the euro area slumped again, falling from an already record weak reading of 34.5 for March to 12.3 in April (consensus: 27.8).
Later on Thursday, EU leaders will try and reach an agreement around a European Commission proposal for a €2.0trn economic recovery plan.