Europe close: Stocks jump as war jitters ease a tad
Stocks finished higher after the US president appeared to douse expectations for an imminent response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
In remarks made through his Twitter account on Thursday, Donald Trump said he had never given an indication on the exact timing of an attack.
"Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our 'Thank you America?'," he said.
The day before, a spokeswoman for the White House said the US administration was keeping a number of options open and on the table.
At market close, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.70% or 2.64 points at 378.82, alongside a rise of 0.98% or 121.04 points to 12,415.01 on the German Dax and an advance of 1.27% or 292.02 points to 23,304.88 for Italy's FTSE Mibtel.
Oil&Gas shares were among the biggest gainers throughout much of the session, yet by the end of the day the Stoxx 600 sector gauge for that sector was up by just 0.25% to 321.36, following the above remarks from Trump.
Among some of the best performing areas of the market on Thursday were: Technology (1.36%), Insurance (1.29%) and Banks (1.09%).
Also helping to put a bid into stocks, euro/dollar was down by 0.3% to 1.2331 on the back of a somewhat hawkish set of US central bank meeting minutes released overnight and a weak reading on euro area factory activity.
Earlier, Eurostat had reported that industrial production in the Eurozone slumped by 0.8% month-on-month in February (consensus: 0.2%), weighed down by a hefty 3.6% drop in capital goods output and a 2.1% fall in durable consumer goods.
M&A still 'alive and well'
In corporate news, IAG announced it had scooped up 4.61% of Norwegian Air's shares and that it was mulling tabling a bid for the entirety of the discount airline's stock.
It was reported that a successful transaction could see the Nordic outfit fetch a valuation of $3bn, when debt is included.
Alex Patterson at Investec expressed surprise at the timing of IAG's move, arguing that the possible sale of Alitalia to a consortium including rivals Air France and KLM or to Lufthansa may have pushed the Anglo-Spanish firm to look into alternate options for deploying its capital.
Carrefour was one the worst performers on the pan-European Stoxx 600 after the grocer posted a 0.1% drop in like-for-like sales in its core French market during the first quarter.
In particular, some analysts criticised the absence of clarity from management as regards the timetable for the pay-offs from its new strategy and around analysts' forecasts for the company.
Meanwhile, in Italy Playtech bought 70.6% of Snaitech for €846m, triggering a mandatory purchase of the remaining shares at €2.19 apiece.
Further East, in Germany, Volkswagen's supervisory board was set to hold a meeting on Thursday for the task of naming a new chief executive.