European stock markets held solid gains around mid-session today supported by strong technology and healthcare shares, although fluctuating US futures suggested a hesitant start on Wall Street.
At 11.47 a.m. Irish time the pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300 was up 0.54 per cent while the blue-chip DJ Stoxx 50 added 0.67 per cent.
Swiss drugs and diagnostics group Roche sat atop the list of blue-chip gainers - up 5.09 per cent after rival Swiss healthcare group Novartis said earlier it had acquired a 20 per cent stake in Roche from financier Martin Ebner's BZ Gruppe Holding.
"Novartis either wants more, or will use that stake as a bargaining tool. And that puts some excitement back into the sector," said one Frankfurt-based European sales trader.
Novartis paid 151 Swiss francs each for 32 million bearer shares (or $2.8 billion) for the stake that it described as a long-term financial investment which is also strategic in nature.
Novartis stock rose 0.97 per cent while the sector overall added on 0.96 per cent. French-German life sciences firm Aventis gained 0.8 per cent while Sanofi-Synthelabo rose 0.38 per cent.
Ericsson, Alcatel and Philips took the baton from Nokia, up 2 per cent apiece and powering a general tech rebound which sent the sector up 1.2 per cent overall.
Overall, sentiment was helped by strong gains on the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index, which rose 45.48 points, or 2.12 per cent, to end at 2,191.68 on Friday after falling more than 2 per cent in early trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average put on 1.43 per cent, also turning round from initial losses as worries over disconcertingly weak US jobs data gave way to hopes of more interest rate cuts.
But players were likely still considering the figures after the US Labour Department unnerved some with a report the economy lost jobs in April at the fastest pace in a decade.
Nasdaq futures were down five points while S&P futures shed 2.70 points.