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LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - European stocks were made tiny
moves on Friday as trading volumes thinned into Christmas,
although Italian shares outperformed on some positive company
updates.
The STOXX 600 .STOXX rose just 0.1% by 0824 GMT, still on
course to end a second week with gains and trading about 1
percent below all-time highs.
That followed record-setting gains on Wall Street after U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said an initial U.S.-China
trade deal would be signed in early January.
European stocks have been less bullish this week amid fresh
concerns over a no-deal Brexit.
While other regional indexes were flat flat, Milan-listed
shares .FTMIB gained 0.7%, led by payments group Nexi
NEXII.MI , which rose 2.8% after Intesa SanPaolo ISP.MI said
it was selling its retailers' payment business to Nexi in a 1
billion euro ($1.1 billion) deal. Other big movers include Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L , which
slipped 0.8% after saying it expects impairment charges of up to
$2.3 billion in the fourth quarter and trimmed its forecast for
quarterly oil production sales. Final reading of UK's third quarter GDP, eurozone consumer
confidence numbers are due for release later in the day.