By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets moved mostly
higher on Monday after better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing
data boosted trading in natural-resource firms.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.3% to 345.31, after closing
with a seventh straight weekly rise on Friday.
Topping the list of gainers in Monday's trade, shares of Orion
Oyj rallied 13% after the Finnish drug maker lifted its full-year
earnings guidance, as it struck a deal with German peer Bayer AG to
develop a prostate cancer drug.
On a sector basis, mining firms helped lift the pan-European
benchmark after China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers
Index rose to 50.8 in May, compared with 50.4 in April. Analysts
polled by Dow Jones expected the PMI to come in at 50.6. A reading
above 50 signals expansion.
Miners are sensitive to growth indications from China, as the
country is a major user of natural resources. Shares of Rio Tinto
PLC (RIO) climbed 1.7% in London, BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) advanced
1%, and Anglo American PLC picked up 1.9%.
The moves helped lift the U.K's FTSE 100 index , which put on
0.3% to 6,862.03.
PMIs were also in focus in Europe, where the final readings for
May were released. For the euro zone, the data showed the region's
manufacturing sector expanded at a slower pace than initially
thought, with the PMI coming in at 52.2, down from the flash
estimate of 52.5.
In France, Markit confirmed that business conditions in the
manufacturing sector deteriorated for the first time in three
months during May. The manufacturing PMI fell to 49.6, down from
51.2 in April, but better than the preliminary reading of 49.3.
The CAC 40 index fell 0.1% to 4,515.93, with BNP Paribas SA
pulling the benchmark lower. The bank dropped 1.3% after Goldman
Sachs removed the French lender from the pan-Europe conviction buy
list and cut the rating to neutral from buy. The Goldman analysts
said "a potentially meaningful financial penalty in the U.S.
curtails the outlook for capital return."
BNP shares fell 2.4% on Friday on news the U.S. Justice
Department seeks $10 billion from the French bank to resolve a
criminal probe.
Elsewhere, Germany's DAX 30 index traded 0.2% higher at
9,966.20. Spain's IBEX 30 index rose 0.6% to 10,860.20, buoyed by
PMI data indicating the sharpest increase in purchasing activity
since April 2010, and after the Spanish prime minister Mariano Roy
said Saturday he is planning to introduce a 6.3 billion-euro ($8.59
billion) economic stimulus package.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
Fixed-income market is 'permanently shrunk'
ECB expected to slash rates, hold back on QE bazooka
May likely to bring shower of new U.S. jobs
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires