Investing.com - European stocks opened mostly higher on Friday, although trading volumes were expected to remain thin as traders were unwinding positions ahead of the Christmas holiday.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 gained 0.35%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.11%, while Germany’s DAX 30 edged up 0.08%.
Financial stocks were broadly higher, as French lenders BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) edged up 0.10% and 0.16%, while Germany’s Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) rallied 1.31% and 3.58%.
Deutsche Bank announced on Friday that it had agreed to pay $7.2 billion to settle an investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice into alleged mis-selling of mortgage securities.
Among peripheral lenders, Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo (MI:ISP) and Unicredit (MI:CRDI) gained 0.98% and 1.96% respectively.
Elsewhere, BASF SE (DE:BASFN) saw shares decline 0.32% even after the Swiss company’s newest herbicide, Engenia, was granted approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 dipped 0.02%, weighed by losses in the mining sector.
Shares in Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped 0.40% and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) slid 0.43%, while rival Glencore (LON:GLEN) declined 0.62%.
Financial stocks were also mostly lower, as Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) slipped 0.27% and HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) retreated 0.43%, while Barclays (LON:BARC) dropped 0.55%. The Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) overperformed however, with shares up 2.24%.
Barclays’s stock was hit by news the lender is being sued by federal prosecutors for allegedly fraudulent MBS issued during the frothiest peaks of the U.S. housing bubble.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a steady open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.02% uptick, S&P 500 futures showed a 0.03% gain, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.04% dip.