European Shares Inch Higher In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks inched higher on Friday but were on track for hefty weekly losses as Iran's retaliation in West Asia spread to Bahrain and Azerbaijan.

In economic releases, U.K. house prices increased at the fastest pace in four months in February, suggesting the property market gained momentum at the start of the year.

House prices registered an annual growth of 1.3 percent in February, following a 1.1 percent rise in January, according to data from the mortgage lender Halifax. This was the strongest growth in four months and exceeded economists' forecast of 0.9 percent.

Final Eurozone Q4 GDP report, employment data and speeches from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and board member ?Isabel Schnabel may garner investor attention later in the day.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was up half a percent at 607.74 after losing 1.3 percent on Thursday.

The German DAX surged 0.7 percent, France's CAC 40 added 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up half a percent.

Banks traded mostly higher, with BNP Paribas and Barclays both gaining around 1 percent.

Sectra shares soared 14 percent, a day after the Swedish medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company announced a deal to acquire Oxipit, a developer of AI tools for x-ray and CT analyses.

German carrier group Deutsche Lufthansa rallied 3.6 percent after posting in-line earnings for 2025.

Roche fell 3 percent and Zealand Pharma plunged 30 percent after their experimental obesity shot failed to meet industry expectations in a mid-stage study.