By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets opened stronger
on Wednesday, with banks and resource firms in the lead, after
Chinese economic growth data exceeded expectations, suggesting the
rate of slowdown in its GDP is bottoming out.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.6% to 340.33, recovering
from a 0.4% loss on Tuesday.
Shares of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) added 1.7% after the miner said it
produced record volumes iron ore in its fiscal first half.
Other resource firms were also on the rise, after China recorded
second-quarter growth of 7.5%, bringing economic expansion rate in
line with the government's target of 2014 growth at "about
7.5%."
Shares of French oil giant Total SA (TOT) gained 1.3%, and miner
Anglo American PLC picked up 0.7%.
Among country-specific indexes, France's CAC 40 index advanced
0.7% to 4,335.02 and Germany's DAX 30 index put on 0.5% to
9,767.05.
U.K.'s FTSE 100 index traded 0.5% higher at 6,746.98 ahead of a
raft of labor-market data due at 9:30 a.m. in London, or 4:30 a.m.
Eastern Time.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
What you can learn from the Comcast call from hell
Yahoo's Mayer has nothing to celebrate
Decoding Yellen: Sooner rate hike means March at the
earliest
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires