European Shares Modestly Higher In Cautious Trade

European stocks were seeing modest gains on Tuesday amid easing concerns over the banking system and on eve of testimony to Parliament about Silicon Valley Bank by the governor of the Bank of England (BoE).

Investors shrugged off survey results from the statistical office Insee showing that French manufacturers’ confidence slightly worsened in March for the first time in four months.

The manufacturing confidence index dropped to 104 in March from 105 in the previous month as the balance of opinion regarding the change in past and future output decreased. The expected score was 103.

Elsewhere, U.K. shop prices logged another record increase in March due to the historical growth in food and non-food prices, data from the British Retail Consortium showed earlier today.

The BRC- NielsenIQ shop price index increased 8.9 percent on a yearly basis in March, faster than the 8.4 percent rise in February.

The annual growth was primarily driven by another record 15.0 percent growth in food prices. Non-food prices also posted a record gain of 5.9 percent.

The pan European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 percent at 445.54 after rallying 1 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX, France’s CAC 40 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 all were up around 0.3 percent.

UBS rose 1.3 percent after CEO Ralph Hamers reportedly said the Swiss lender views its government-orchestrated takeover of Credit Suisse Group as a growth opportunity.

Credit Suisse gained 1.4 percent while Deutsche Bank was down nearly 2 percent.

A recovery in crude prices lifted commodity stocks. Miners Anglo American and Glencore rose over 1 percent each while oil & gas firm BP Plc jumped 1.7 percent and Shell added 1.3 percent.

British online supermarket Ocado tumbled 4 percent after keeping its profit guidance for the full year.

Beverage firm Diageo shed 1 percent on news that CEO Ivan Menezes will retire at the end of June.

German drug discovery firm Evotec jumped 2.7 percent after reporting a 22 percent rise in FY preliminary revenues.

Commercial kitchen supplier Rational AG tumbled 3 percent despite posting a significant rise in fiscal year 2022 revenue.

Construction equipment manufacturer Wacker Neuson rose about 1 percent after saying it expects demand to remain high in 2023.

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