Travel, banking stocks lift European shares with data in focus
STOXX 600 up 0.3%
German economy shrank 0.1% in Q2
Banco Santander jumps on share buyback programme
Airlines rise after Ryanair outlook
Bunzl surges after raising annual profit forecast
Updated at 1610 GMT
By Pranav Kashyap and Lisa Pauline Mattackal
Aug 27 (Reuters) -Gains in banking stocks and airlines lifted European shares on Tuesday, though trading remained cautious ahead of key economic data later this week.
The travel and leisure .SXTP and banking sectors .SX7P were the top gainers for the day, rising 0.7% and 0.9% respectively. The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX edged 0.2% higher to 518.88 points.
Banco Santander SAN.MC rose 2.5% after the Spanish bank launched a 1.525 billion euro ($1.70 billion) share buyback programme.
Meanwhile, the travel sector was lifted as Ryanair RYA.I upgraded its summer air fare outlook. Ryanair rose 4.6%, while easyJet EZJ.L and Wizz Air WIZZ.L respectively gained 6.9% and 5.2%.
Germany's benchmark DAX .GDAXI rose 0.4%, despite detailed GDP data released earlier in the day that showed Europe's biggest economy shrank by 0.1% in the second quarter of 2024.
Further data is awaited throughout the week from the region's major economies as well as Friday's European Union inflation print and inflation data from the U.S.
Investors are looking for more signals on the economic health of the euro zone, as well as further signals on the policy path for both the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve ahead of rate decisions in September.
"While the U.S. has the potential to go into recession, Europe continues to barely avoid one - and is thus in a more susceptible situation," said Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist at Macquarie.
"That sense of foreboding will keep the stock market sensitive (to the downside) to periodic negative growth surprises, such as we had in late July."
ECB policymaker Klaas Knot said the euro zone central bank can gradually lower interest rates if inflation continues to fall, but needs more data before confirming a September cut.
AI-sector darling Nvidia's second-quarter results on Wednesday are expected to be a key trigger for global equities, as even a slight miss could hurt the chipmaker's shares.
Europe's tech sector .SX8P reversed early losses, closing 0.2% higher.
Among regional bourses, Spanish stocks .IBEX rose 0.6% to their highest since early June on Banco Santander's rise.
Among individual movers, Bunzl BNZL.L surged 8%, the biggest gainer on the STOXX 600 after the British business supplies distributor raised its annual adjusted operating profit forecast.
Spain's Talgo TLGO.MC dropped as much as 10% on Tuesday after the government blocked a 619 million-euro takeover bid for the train maker from Hungarian consortium Ganz-Mavag, citing national security concerns.
($1 = 0.8957 euros)
Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Rashmi Aich and Susan Fenton
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