Healthcare, tech stocks boost STOXX 600 to one-week high

European stocks scaled to their highest levels in more than a week on Tuesday, driven by the healthcare and technology sector, as investors found comfort in upbeat corporate earnings, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index climbed to hit an all-time peak. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.6%, as of 0838 GMT, boosted by a nearly 0.9% jump in healthcare stocks .

European stocks scaled to their highest levels in more than a week on Tuesday, driven by the healthcare and technology sector, as investors found comfort in upbeat corporate earnings, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index climbed to hit an all-time peak.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.6%, as of 0838 GMT, boosted by a nearly 0.9% jump in healthcare stocks . Helping the sector's rise was a 4.8% gain in Novartis as the Swiss drugmaker raised its full-year outlook after reporting first-quarter results that surpassed expectations.

The tech sector added 1.8%, lifted by SAP's 3.7% rise after the German company reported a 24% jump in first-quarter cloud revenue at 3.93 billion euros ($4.19 billion), buoyed by demand for its enterprise resource planning software. On the flip side, Randstad, the world's biggest employment agency, reported disappointing quarterly core earnings, sending shares of the Dutch firm down 6.2%, among top decliners on the STOXX.

"It's been very much a mixed bag going into this earnings season and I don't think we would necessarily expect anything particular to stand out," said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index. "But again, improving economic recovery and lower interest rate expectations are what's driving (broader) optimism on this side of the pond."

On the economic data front, business activity overall in the euro zone expanded at its fastest pace in nearly a year this month as a buoyant recovery in the bloc's dominant service industry more than offset a deeper downturn in manufacturing. Equities have been making a steady recovery from over a month's low, given no signs of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East escalating, while a number of upbeat corporate reports and hopes of imminent interest rates kept the risk appetite buoyant.

Overall, first-quarter earnings are expected to decrease 12.1% from a year ago, LSEG data showed last week. Among others, Telecom Italia gained 4.3% to top the Italian main index after CEO Pietro Labriola appeared set to secure a second term as leading investor Vivendi decided to abstain in a shareholder vote on the renewal of the former phone monopoly's board.

DNB dropped 3.6%, weighing on Oslo's all-share index after Norway's largest bank disappointed expectations on quarterly net interest income. Elsewhere, UK's exporter-focused FTSE 100 climbed 0.2% after notching an all-time intraday high of 8,075.52 points earlier in the day, with JD Sports Fashion among top gainers after proposing to buy American athletic fashion retailer Hibbett Inc for about $1.08 billion.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)