Europe open: Stocks on track for sixth straight gain

(Sharecast News) - European stocks rose for the sixth straight session on Friday, with gains across all major markets, despite a mixed batch of economic data early on.

"European bourses have [...] been riding high, again led by semiconductor companies but also a revival in healthcare valuations as drug pricing fears recede in the wake of Pfizer's recent deal with the White House," said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.4% at 569.72, on track to set a third closing record high in as many days, having now gained 3.6% over the past six trading sessions.

HCOB released a barrage of service-sector purchasing managers' indices (PMIs) across the eurozone as markets opened. While these were secondary estimates after the flash readings were published last week, the services PMI for the whole single-currency region was revised down to 51.3 from 51.4, though up from 50.5 and still its highest level in nine months.

Revisions to service-sector activity in Germany and France showed weaker-than-expected readings, while numbers in Spain and Italy were revised up.

Still to come, the second reading of the S&P Global UK services PMI, the eurozone producer price for August and a scheduled speech from European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde.

Madrid's IBEX 35 was outperforming other indices with a 1% gain, with just two constituents in the red and banking stocks dominating the risers list early on. Banco de Sabadell, Banco Santander, CaixaBank, BBVA, Unicaja Banco and Bankinter were all among the best performers.

However, it was Austrian peer Raiffeisen Bank that was the standout riser across the continent, gaining 7% on reports that the EU is considering unfreezing sanctions on �2bn of assets linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to compensate Raiffeisen for a fine it had to pay in Russia.