ROME: European stocks rose, extending a seven-year high, as gains in miners outweighed a drop in telecommunications shares.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3 percent to 396.5 at 8:12 a.m. in London. The benchmark measure climbed 1.5 percent on Wednesday, the most in more than six weeks, as a weaker currency boosted exporters.
BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group gained more than 1 percent, pushing a gauge of commodity stocks to the best performance among 19 industry groups. BT Group Plc fell 1.6 percent, dragging telecommunications stocks lower. U.K.’s industry regulator said it will hold its second major assessment of the sector.
The Stoxx 600 has rallied 15 percent this year as the European Central Bank announced quantitative-easing measures to stimulate growth and boost inflation. Euro-area central banks bought German, Belgian, French, Italian and Spanish bonds this week, sending borrowing costs across the region to record lows.
A report at 11 a.m. in Luxembourg may show industrial production in the euro area rose in January from a month earlier, economists forecast.
