European shares have logged strong gains this week on growing optimism over a trade truce between the United States and China. — Reuters pic
The update helped power a one per cent rise in bank stocks, the most among the major European sub-sectors. The pan-European STOXX 600 index struggled for direction after rising about 0.1 per cent in early trading. “There is a little bit of a holding pattern after the optimism we saw on the trade front and the effect is just slowly wearing off,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.