BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks were sharply higher on Friday despite the U.S. hiking tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing saying it would strike back in a sharp escalation in the trade spat.
With U.S. and Chinese officials holding talks for a second day, investors still remained hopeful of a breakthrough in talks.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 54 points or 1.03 percent at 5,368 after tumbling 1.9 percent on Thursday.
Air France KLM rallied 1.2 percent after the carrier reported over 9 percent rise in passenger traffic across the group last month.
On a light day on the economic front, official data showed that Germany's exports rebounded at the fastest pace in three months in March, defying expectations for further decline.
Exports rose 1.5 percent month-on-month in March, after a revised 1.2 percent fall in February, adding strength to hopes that the biggest euro area economy performed strongly in the first three months of the year.
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