European stocks rise led by automotive sector

European stocks rose Thursday, to resume gains after pausing yesterday on profit-taking from 2-week highs, lifted by the automotive sector's gains, and the Euro drop against its counterparts, while the market digested the IMF gloomy global economic outlook.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.25% as of 11:12 GMT, after closing lower by 2.8% yesterday, on profit-taking from a 2-week high.

Alongside profit-taking, European stocks fell yesterday due to concerns over the escalating US-Eu trade tensions.

The pan European index opened higher today, near its 2-week highs, with most European markets and sectors seeing green today.

The automotive sector saw the largest gains in Europe today, with a rise by 2%, as the Euro dropped against its counterparts.

The global markets are parsing the latest International Monetary Fund's global outlook and warnings of high debt levels, after the fund estimated that the global GDP will shrink by 4.9% in 2020, which higher than the previous estimate in April of 3%.

S&P 500 futures lost more than 1.1%, after the index closed lower by 2.6% yesterday at Wall Street, after a surge in coronavirus infections in the US.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.3%, France's CAC 40 climbed 0.3%, Germany's DAX rose 0.4%, while the UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.