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European stocks were slightly higher on Friday as investors digested a raft of earnings reports and mixed GDP data from the region. <\/p>\n
The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.1 percent to 439.26 after declining 0.3 percent on Thursday. The German DAX rose half a percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 index was marginally higher. <\/p>\n
Tobacco company Swedish Match lost 2 percent despite reporting significant rise in first-quarter net income.<\/p>\n
Italian energy company ENI dropped 1.2 percent. The company said that hydrocarbon production in the first quarter ticked lower to 1.70 million barrels of oil equivalent a day compared with 1.79 million boe\/d the previous year.<\/p>\n
Reinsurance giant Swiss Re jumped 4 percent after reporting a strong first-quarter to the year. <\/p>\n
French aerospace company Safran gained 2.3 after maintaining full-year forecasts.<\/p>\n
Lender BNP Paribas dropped 1.2 percent despite reporting better-than-expected profit, helped by lower provisions for pandemic-related bad loans and a rebound in equity trading.<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca rallied 3.3 percent in London. The pharmaceutical giant said it generated $275m in revenue from its non-profit Covid-19 vaccine in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Hikma Pharma advanced 1.6 percent after announcing the approval of KLOXXADO nasal spray 8mg, by the FDA for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose.<\/p>\n
Smurfit Kappa surged 4 percent. The provider of paper-based packaging solutions reported that its first-quarter underlying revenue growth was 6 percent from last year.<\/p>\n
Lender Barclays slumped 4.8 percent despite reporting a quarterly profit that more than doubled.<\/p>\n
In economic releases, Eurozone GDP shrank by 0.6 percent in the first three months of this year as slow vaccine rollout and ongoing lockdowns delayed recovery, new figures from Eurostat showed. <\/p>\n
The euro zone jobless rate fell to 8.1 percent in March, down from 8.2 percent in February and better than expectation of 8.3 percent. <\/p>\n
U.K. house prices grew 2.1 percent month-on-month in April, the biggest monthly rise since February 2004, data published by the Nationwide Building Society showed. Economists had forecast an increase of 0.5 percent after posting a 0.3 percent drop in March.<\/p>\n
On a yearly basis, house prices inflation rose to 7.1 percent from 5.7 percent in March. The rate was expected to slow to 5 percent in April. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n