BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks eked out modest gains on Wednesday, mirroring recovery in Italian equities after reports emerged that the major parties in Italy are calling for President Sergio Mattarella to dissolve parliament immediately and conduct fresh elections as early as July.
Encouraging economic reports also helped lift investor sentiment. Germany's jobless rate dropped to adjusted 3.4 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March, figures from Destatis revealed. In the same period of last year, the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent.
The number of unemployed decreased around 20,000 from the previous month to 1.47 million.
Another report showed that German retail sales expanded for the first time in five months in April. In real terms, retail sales grew 2.3 percent in April from March, when trade decreased by revised 0.4 percent. This was the biggest growth since October 2016.
The benchmark DAX was up 0.4 percent at 12,715 in opening deals after tumbling 1.5 percent the previous day.
Biotech firm Evotec rose about 1 percent after an update that it will receive a $6 million payment from Celgene following Celgene's decision to expand the collaboration to include additional cell lines.
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