European stocks rise at open

LONDON: Europe’s stock markets rallied Friday as dealers took their cue from Wall Street’s positive lead and upbeat UK economic growth data.

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading blue-chip companies added 0.8 percent to 7,988.87 points, boosted partly by news of UK economic growth in February.

European equities open higher before US inflation data

In the eurozone, the Paris CAC 40 index rose almost 1.0 percent to 8,101.43 points and DAX in Frankfurt jumped 0.9 percent to 18,123.32.