LONDON (Reuters) - European shares were poised for their best week in more than two months as investors piled back into equities on signs that the world's major central banks would likely not tighten monetary policy as quickly as some had feared.
The move on indexes on Friday was more muted as investors hunkered down ahead of earnings reports from major US banks including JPMorgan (N:JPM) and Citigroup (N:C) later in the day.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) index rose 0.1 percent while euro zone bluechips (STOXX50E) were little changed.
Firmer metals prices underpinned gains on mining stocks.
Miners (SXPP) were led higher by steel firms ArcelorMittal (AS:MT), Outokumpu (HE:OUT1V) and Norsk Hydro (OL:NHY) which rose after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was considering quotas and tariffs on Chinese steel dumping.
While a rise in bond yields has hit rate-sensitive sectors such as utilities (SX6P), banking stocks (SX7P) have instead benefited and the sector was roughly flat as Swedish lender SEB (ST:SEBa) jumped 2.4 percent after its second-quarter profit topped forecasts.
Swedish construction group Skanksa (ST:SKAb) was the worst performer on the STOXX 600, down more than 4 percent after it warned that its second-quarter profit would be hit by project writedowns in the U.S. and Britain.
European earnings get underway in earnest only later this month. Overall, analyst are calling for about 9 percent year-on-year earnings growth for top European firms, compared to about 8 percent for the U.S., according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
