(Reuters) – European shares rose on Friday as industrial and financial stocks gained on optimism over China relaxing COVID curbs, while Credit Suisse climbed on news of a capital raise.
The region-wide STOXX 600 index was up 0.2% at 0810 a.m. GMT and appeared set to snap a five-day losing streak that was largely driven by concerns about an impending global recession brought on by sharp rate hikes from central banks.
Data on Thursday showing a rise in U.S. weekly jobless claims, however, has raised investor hopes that the Federal Reserve could temper its aggressive stance on interest rate hikes.
Investors have also cheered China easing its strict COVID curbs which they hope would help drive a recovery in the country’s economy.
Industrial stocks including Airbus were among the biggest boosts to the STOXX 600, while the financial services sector rose as shares of Credit Suisse rebounded further from record lows hit last week.
Credit Suisse shares rose 3.0% after the embattled bank hailed a “milestone” in its turnaround plan on Thursday after raising 2.24 billion Swiss francs ($2.39 billion) as part of a 4 billion franc cash call.
Despite early gains, the STOXX 600 was still likely to log losses this week after seven straight weekly gains.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
