ROME: European stocks closed higher Friday and nabbed a weekly gain, with a dive by the euro after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report giving a boost to exporters.
After losing ground earlier in the session, the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +0.31% rose 0.3% to end at 379.95. The index achieved a weekly rise of 1.2%.
Much of Friday’s gain for the Stoxx 600 came from German equities, which benefited from the euro’s slide to a six-month low against the dollar. Germany’s DAX DAX, +0.92% jumped 0.9% to end at 10,988.03, with the index briefly trading above 11,000 for the first time since August.
The euro EURUSD, -1.3047% recently traded 1.3% lower at $1.0742 in the wake of news that the U.S. economy added 271,000 jobs in October, well above expectations. The euro late Thursday bought $1.0880.
The dollar drove higher on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate increase in nearly a decade could come as soon as next month. A weaker euro tends to make prices of European-made goods less expensive to purchase for overseas customers. The export-oriented German economy is the largest in Europe.
On the DAX, auto maker BMW BMW, +3.62% shares drove up 3.5%, Daimler AG DAI, +2.11% closed up 2.2% and HeidelbergCement AG HEI, +1.89% also added 2.2%.
