Paris - European stocks rose on Friday, halting a sharp two-day retreat and helped by a surge in Novo Nordisk and a renewed fall in the euro, which supported exporters.
Denmark's Novo Nordisk jumped 13 percent after the pharmaceutical firm said it would submit interim data from a clinical trial of its crucial new insulin drug Tresiba to US regulators within the next month.
“Because the company's medium-term growth projections depend on US Tresiba this is a positive for sentiment,” analysts at Barclays said in a note.
Sports retailer Adidas rose 5.6 percent to a nine-month high after a bullish investor day, with a couple of brokers upgrading their target price on the stock.
At 11h22 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.7 percent at 1,585.32 points.
European stocks tumbled in the previous two sessions, with the FTSEurofirst 300 losing 1.9 percent as a rebounding euro currency prompted investors to cash in recent sharp gains.
The euro fell back on Friday, trading at $1.0847, well below Thursday's intraday high of $1.10525. European shares have rallied in the past six months as investors bet a sharp drop in the currency would boost the region's economy and lift corporate results.
“The impact from the lower euro, and also from lower oil prices, will be quite significant on European earnings and is set to support the market for a while,” said Arnaud Scarpaci, fund manager at Montaigne Capital.
“The market is also set to see further cash coming from foreign investors, especially Asian and Middle Eastern investors as they increase their exposure to Europe.”
The euro is down about 20 percent against the dollar over the past year, which is set to give euro zone companies a major lift as roughly 50 percent of their earnings come from outside the region.
The single currency retreated on prospects of a quantitative easing campaign from the European Central Bank, launched this month, contrasting with the trajectory of monetary policy in the United States where the Federal Reserve is seen raising interest rates this year.
Mining shares bucked the trend on Friday, with Glencore down 3.1 percent and Anglo American falling 3.9 percent.
An industry official said three-quarters of China's domestic iron ore capacity was incurring losses, as a sustained slump in the price of the steelmaking commodity batters higher-cost producers.
Reuters