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Sept 12 (Reuters) - European shares opened on Thursday at
their highest level since July 30 on fresh evidence of easing
trade war tensions between the United States and China.
After Beijing decided to exempt some U.S. goods from
additional tariffs on Wednesday, Washington reciprocated by
announcing a short delay to scheduled tariff hikes on billions
worth of Chinese goods. The pan-European stock index .STOXX rose 0.2% by 0710 GMT.
The index touched a 6-week high on Wednesday on optimism about a
de-escalation in the economically damaging Sino-U.S. trade war
and expectations of monetary stimulus from the European Central
Bank.
The direction of trading through the session will be
determined by the extent of the stimulus that the ECB delivers
after a policy meeting later on Thursday.
Investors widely expect the central bank to announce an
interest rate cut for the first time since 2016 and restart an
asset purchase programme. But analysts have warned against
setting expectations too high. Among stocks, Anheuser-Busch InBev ABI.BR was the biggest
boost to the STOXX 600 after the company said it would again
explore an initial public offering in Hong Kong for its Asia
Pacific unit two months after cancelling the planned listing.