Paris - European shares rose on Wednesday morning, bouncing back from the previous session's pull-back, with shares of Standard Chartered surging 5.3 percent after the bank said it aims to cut $1.8 billion in costs over three years.
British broadcaster ITV also featured among the top gainers across Europe, rising 5 percent after the group said it plans to return 250 million pounds ($385 million) to shareholders via a special dividend.
Bucking the trend, German consumer goods group Henkel fell 3.8 percent after the group, which is prominent in Russia, struck a cautious note on its 2015 outlook as it expects stagnation in Eastern Europe and further pressure on the Russian economy and currency over the coming months.
Medical technology group Elekta fell 9 percent after it posted lower-than-expected core earnings.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo Plc sank 4.2 percent after posting a 40 percent drop in full-year pretax profit, hurt by falling gold and silver prices.
At 08h39 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,551.26 points, while the broader STOXX 600 was up 0.3 percent. Both indexes lost 1 percent on Tuesday.
“Investors are turning a bit more cautious given the ECB tomorrow as well as the US payrolls on Friday,” Saxo Bank trader Andrea Tueni said.
“It's not a surprise to see a pause in the rally, stocks have been on fire since the start of the year, some people are cashing in a bit. But the positive trend is intact.”
A batch of macro data on the euro zone, including French and German services PMIs for February, showed activity expanding in the bloc's biggest economies.
In the United States, non-farm payrolls for February due on Friday could provide clues about the timing of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike.
Economists polled by Reuters expect an increase of 240 000 new jobs in February, falling short of the 257 000 seen in January. Ahead of the jobs data, investors will focus on US ISM services report to be released later on Wednesday.
The STOXX 600 has risen 13 percent so far in 2015 - its strongest start to the year since the index was created in late 1986 and the best performance among all asset classes - prompting a number of analysts and fund managers to warn about the risk of a correction in the short term.
“Tactically, Europe is in overshooting mode,” Michael Riesner, head of equity technical analysis at UBS, wrote in a note.
“The STOXX 600 is almost record high overbought, and in the last 40 years we had just two rallies with a similar steep shape, which was 1998 and 2000.”
Reuters