European Shares Broadly Higher In Quiet Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks were broadly higher on Friday as trading resumed after a two-day break for Christmas holidays.

The pan-European STOXX 600 edged up by 0.3 percent to 505.08 and was on track for a modest weekly gain.

The German DAX inched up 0.1 percent and France's CAC 40 rose 0.4 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was marginally lower.

Banks traded higher, with Commerzbank, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale rising 1-2 percent amid a surge in regional government bond yields.

Germany's 10-year bond yield hit 2.346 percent, a peak since late November, in response to a surge in U.S. Treasury yields following a successful seven-year auction.

The yield spread with French bonds widened amid concerns over the country's fiscal deficit.

France's new premier Francois Bayrou has vowed to sharply narrow the nation's deficit to close to 5 percent of GDP, a level his predecessor unsuccessfully tried to reach.

Delivery Hero SE shares slumped 5.2 percent. Taiwan has rejected Uber Technologies Inc.'s plan to acquire the German online takeaway food company's Foodpanda local business for $950 million, arguing it would decrease competition.

Energy giant BP Plc and peer Shell were moving higher in London, as oil ticked up and remained on track for a weekly gain on expectations economic stimulus efforts will prompt a recovery in China, the world's second-largest economy.

Miners traded lower after iron ore sank to the lowest in more than five weeks — falling below $100 a ton — after the release of disappointing industrial profits data from China.

Anglo American fell 1.4 percent, while Glencore and Antofagasta both slipped around half a percent.