(Reuters) – European shares opened higher on Friday after two straight days of declines, as investors snapped up beaten-down miners, though gains were limited by hawkish comments from more U.S. Federal Reserve officials.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% by 0813 GMT, with basic resources stocks up 1.1% after falling more than 3% in the last two sessions.
Banks rose 0.3% as the European Central Bank gears up to start the biggest withdrawal of cash from the euro zone’s banking system in its history, with banks expected to repay about 500 bln euros in TLTRO loans. The ECB’s announcement is expected at 1105 GMT.
Rate-sensitive tech stocks were 0.6% lower after St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said interest rates might need to hit between 5.00% and 5.25% from the current level of just below 4.00% to be “sufficiently restrictive” to curb inflation.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
