FRANKFURT: European shares closed higher on Thursday, led by industrials and automakers, as global risk appetite improved on elevated US rate cut expectations, while investors digested a mixed bag of corporate updates.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.45 percent to 578.84 points at the close, its third session of gains.
Automakers led sectoral advances, climbing 2.2 percent, with Porsche and Mercedes-Benz adding 5.7 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.
They were boosted after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed slashing fuel economy standards, in a push to make it easier for automakers to sell gasoline-powered cars.
Industrial stocks also rallied 1.4 percent. Schneider Electric and Siemens Energy gained 3.2 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, after J.P.Morgan upgraded both companies’ ratings to “overweight” from “neutral.”
Those moves supported regional indexes, with those in Germany and France up about 0.9 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
“There’s finally a bit of good news for a sector that has struggled to make sustained headway in terms of real upside for quite some time... the loosening of regulation might just allow the sector a bit of breathing room,” IG Chief Market Analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
The day’s moves in the STOXX 600 were also driven by investor confidence that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
US weekly jobless claims, which fell to their lowest in more than three years, did little to alter rate-cut expectations.