European Shares A Tad Higher At Midday As Miners Rally

(RTTNews) - European stocks traded flat in choppy trade on Thursday after two days of strong gains. Oil prices breached the $50 a barrel mark for the first time since November and copper rose for a third straight session on a weaker dollar, helping investor sentiment somewhat as the G7 meeting of finance ministers in Japan got underway.

Amid lack of key triggers, investors await a slew of U.S. economic reports due later in the day and a speech by Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen on Friday for clues to the U.S. rate outlook.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was down about 0.1 percent in choppy trading after climbing 1.3 percent in the previous session in the wake of encouraging German data, easing Brexit worries and the Greek debt deal.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index were up about 0.3 percent each while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was little changed with a positive bias.

Commodity-related stocks traded mostly higher, with oil giants BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA rising about 1 percent each. Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Glencore and Rio Tinto climbed 2-4 percent. Food ingredients maker Tate & Lyle gained 2.5 percent after reporting a rise in fiscal 2016 pretax profit.

Water utility United Utilities Group dropped 1.5 percent after reporting a substantial drop in full-year underlying profits.

Daily Mail and General Trust shares slumped 9 percent. The company reported a decline in first-half profit and warned that a weak print advertising market will squeeze margins in the media business.

Italian phone group Telecom Italia rallied 3 percent after its shareholders voted in favor of a special award plan for its CEO Flavio Cattaneo and other top managers.

Banco Popular plunged 20 percent on worries over earnings after the Spanish bank announced plans to raise up to 2.5 billion euros through a share issue to strengthen its balance sheet.

AXA Group shares traded marginally higher in Paris after the French insurer said it would sell all its equity holdings in tobacco immediately, representing just over 180 million euros.

On a relatively light day on the economic front, official data showed that the U.K. economy expanded as initially estimated in the first quarter. Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, unrevised from the estimate published on April 27. On an annual basis, GDP climbed 2 percent instead of 2.1 percent estimated previously.

Another report from the British Bankers' Association revealed that U.K. mortgage approvals have fallen more than expected last month after the stamp duty hike.