BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The European surged higher Thursday after the European Central Bank took its first cautious steps toward normalization. The ECB announced that it will reduce the size of its asset purchases at the start of next year, while extended them for nine months, the 'lower for longer' style of tapering that economists had expected a dovish Mario Draghi to deliver.
Monthly asset purchases under the asset purchase programme, or APP, will continue at the current monthly pace of EUR 60 billion until the end of December 2017, the bank said in its statement.
From January 2018, the net asset purchases will be reduced to a monthly pace of EUR 30 billion, which will continue until the end of September 2018, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim, the bank added.
The bank also kept all its three interest rates unchanged for a thirteenth consecutive policy session.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index advanced 1.12 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks increased 1.27 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 1.18 percent.
The DAX of Germany climbed 1.39 percent and the CAC 40 of France rose 1.50 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.53 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 1.28 percent.
In Frankfurt, Bayer tumbled 1.83 percent after reporting a slight decline in third-quarter sales.
Deutsche Bank lost 0.93 percent. The bank's third-quarter profit more-than doubled from last year mainly reflecting cost reductions and lower provision for credit losses, while revenues declined due to weak client activity.
Munich Re climbed 3.58 percent. The reinsurer projected a small profit for the full year 2017 after revealing a loss for the third quarter due to costs related to recent natural disasters.
In Paris, Orange rose 1.29 percent after posting record mobile sales in France in the three months ended September 30.
Schneider Electric gained 0.63 percent. The energy management firm posted muted growth in third-quarter revenues organically, while it was down 1.9 percent on a reported basis.
In London, Barclays tumbled 7.41 percent after the lender reported a decline in revenues at its corporate and investment bank.
Engineering firm ABB rallied 2.26 percent in Zurich after its third-quarter earnings beat forecasts.
Banco Santander rose 3.21 percent in Madrid after delivering another solid quarter of results.
Statoil fell 2.41 percent in Oslo after its Q3 net loss widened from last year due to a number of impairment charges.
Nokia sank 17.53 percent in Helsinki. The company warned of challenges in its networks business after posting a 9 percent drop in network sales in the third quarter.
STMicroelectronics jumped 11.96 percent in Milan. The semiconductor company raised its full-year outlook after reporting a surge in third-quarter net income to $236 million from $71 million in the year-ago period.
Eurozone broad money supply rose at a faster pace and private sector credit logged a stable growth in September, data from the European Central Bank showed Thursday. The broad monetary aggregate M3 climbed 5.1 percent year-on-year, slightly faster than the 5 percent increase seen in August. M3 was forecast to grow again by 5 percent in September.
German consumer confidence is set to fall in November, survey data from market research group GfK showed Thursday. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index fell unexpectedly to 10.7 in November from 10.8 in October. The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 10.8.
British retailers reported a sharp contraction in sales, disappointing expectations for a solid expansion, the Distributive Trades Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed Thursday. A net balance of -36 percent said sales declined in October from a year ago, the biggest since March 2009.
After reporting first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits at their lowest level in over forty years in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended October 21st.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 233,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 223,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 235,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Pending home sales in the U.S. were unexpectedly flat in the month of September, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday. NAR said its pending home sales index came in at 106.0 in September, unchanged from a downwardly revised reading for August. Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.2 percent.
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