By Shubham Batra
(Reuters) -European shares edged higher on Thursday, heading into a long Easter weekend break, as real estate and travel stocks helped outweigh concerns over a U.S. economic slowdown that were triggered by lacklustre data.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index inched up 0.5%, set for its third consecutive weekly gain.
The real estate shares led the gains, rising 1.5%, while personal and household goods stocks lost 0.2%.
After a strong start to the year, European equities remained under selling pressure from last month as the recent banking turmoil kept the risk sentiment fragile, with skittish investors fretting about mixed economic data and a looming recession.
Markets still expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue their rate hikes in the next policy meeting.
“With ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane warning that food price inflation in the EU was still rising, the pressure is building for further rate hikes from the ECB in the coming weeks,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday after data showed private employers hired far fewer workers than expected in March.
Investors will keep a close eye on a key U.S. jobs report due on Friday for more clues on the outlook for global interest rates.
Back in the euro zone, German industrial production rose significantly more than expected in February partially due to vehicle manufacturing, up 2% on the previous month.
Among individual stocks, Shell was up 1.9% as the oil and gas giant expects higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) output in the first quarter after outages at its Australian plants last year.
Temenos AG rose 4.1% after reports suggest the company asked for fresh expressions of interest from potential suitors in recent weeks after takeover talks fell apart last year over the price.
Shares of Zurich Insurance Group edged 0.8% higher as the group said it was withdrawing from the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA), becoming the second founding member to quit the climate group in less than a week.
Credit Suisse edged 0.2% higher after Switzerland instructed the bank to cancel or reduce all outstanding bonus payments for the top three levels of management.
Markets will be closed on Friday and Monday on account of Good Friday and Easter holidays.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
