European shares were steady on Friday, propped up by the Swiss stock market and pharmaceuticals companies after drugmaker Roche climbed on positive results for one of its products.
The pan-European STOXX 600 and FTSEurofirst 300 equity indexes both edged up by 0.1 per cent, hovering around their highest levels in a month.
Zurich’s benchmark SMI market outperformed to rise by 0.7 per cent, helped by a 3.8 per cent gain at Roche which was the best-performing European blue-chip stock.
Roche got a big boost when a clinical trial testing its new blood cancer drug Gazyva proved successful, lifting prospects for a new medicine that will be pivotal as the Swiss company fights the threat of biosimilar competition.
Roche also lifted up peers such as Novartis and Sanofi.
“Switzerland's SMI is outperforming today, mainly thanks to Roche, after the company published the positive data this morning on an important product with multi-billion sales potential,” said Jerome Schupp, financial analyst at Swiss bank and fund management firm SYZ.
However, bank stocks and energy stocks both fell, with shares in oil majors losing ground after Brent crude oil prices dipped back below the $50-per-barrel level.
Banks were impacted as Spain’s Banco Popular fell to a record low, a day after slumping 26 per cent after announcing a capital increase.
“Popular’s capital raise may put further pressure on Spanish banks to take additional provisions,” said Berenberg analyst Andrew Lowe.