By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets traded mostly
higher on Friday, recovering from small losses seen the prior day,
as investors welcomed upbeat German business-confidence data.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.3% to 323.29, bringing the
benchmark out of negative territory for the week and setting it on
track for a 0.1% weekly advance.
Shares of Novartis AG (NVS) added 2.4% after the Swiss drug
maker announced a $5 billion share buyback to start
immediately.
Whitbread PLC gained 3.4% after J.P. Morgan Cazenove lifted the
coffee shop and restaurant operator to overweight from neutral on
the back of "recent strong U.K. macro trends."
Shares of Suedzucker AG lost 2.7% after HSBC cut the sugar
producer to neutral from overweight. On Thursday, the firm, tumbled
9.2% after cutting its fiscal-year earnings outlook as sugar
production has turned out weaker than expected.
More broadly, investors digested the latest round of data out of
Germany. The Ifo business-climate index rose to 109.3 in November,
beating expectations of a 107.8 reading and rising from the 107.4
seen in October. The current-situations and expectations indexes
also climbed.
Earlier in the morning, data confirmed growth in Europe's
largest economy slowed to 0.3% in the third quarter from 0.7% in
the prior three-month period.
Germany's DAX 30 index rose 0.1% to 9,207.43.
France's CAC 40 index added 0.5% to 4,274.08, while the U.K.'s
FTSE 100 index put on 0.2% to 6,691.00.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires