UPDATE 2-European shares up for week, hopes remain for recovery plan

(For a live blog on European stocks, type LIVE/ in an Eikon
news window)
* STOXX 600 posts gains for the week
* Wirecard tumbles for second straight day
* EU leaders do not sign recovery plan, aim for deal in July
* Lufthansa up as investor Thiele seeks talks with govt -
report
* Finland and Sweden stock markets closed on Friday

(Adds comments, end of EU recovery plan talks; updates prices
to close)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
June 19 (Reuters) - European shares closed higher on Friday,
with defensive plays leading gains as investors remained hopeful
that a massive stimulus package will soon be passed even though
EU leaders made little progress in negotiations.
A proposed rescue package worth 1.85 trillion euros was
discussed at a summit by video-conference, and the leaders
agreed to meet in person in mid-July to haggle and get a
long-term budget across the line. "With France, Germany, Italy and Spain all behind the idea,
we think it will ultimately be agreed," Capital Economics wrote
in a client note.
"But the frugal four (Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and
Sweden) are still resisting a scheme based on grants rather than
loans."
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX , which like other
global markets has struggled in the face of new bouts of
coronavirus infections in China and a number of other economies,
rose 0.6%.
The STOXX 600 index ended the week higher, recovering about
36% from its March lows on massive stimulus and less-than-dire
economic data. Traders are now betting on urgent action to haul
coronavirus-hit European economies from the deepest recession
since World War Two.
"European leaders seem to have enough pressure to sway the
fiscally hawkish nations into agreeing on the proposed
750-billion-euro recovery fund," said Edward Moya, senior market
analyst at OANDA in New York.
However, COVID-19 cases continued to rise as around 400
workers at a slaughterhouse in northern Germany tested positive
on Thursday, while the numbers rose in several U.S. states and
Beijing.
Defensive utilities .SX6P and health care stocks .SXDP
were among the top gainers on Friday, while oil & gas stocks
.SXEP bounced on higher crude prices.
Wirecard WDIG.DE lost another 35.3%, after plunging about
60% on Thursday, as its chief executive quit amidst the German
payments firm's search for $2.1 billion of missing cash which
hit a dead end in the Philippines and it scrambled to secure a
financial lifeline from its banks. Lufthansa LHAG.DE rose 3% after its biggest shareholder,
German billionaire Heinz Hermann Thiele, reached out to Berlin
politicians for talks, newspaper Handelsblatt reported, the
latest step in a standoff over the airline's 9 billion euro ($10
billion) bailout.
Shares in Softewareone SWON.S slipped 6.7% after the
company announced changes in shareholder structure and in the
board of directors.
Stock markets in Finland and Sweden were closed for trading
on Friday.