By Julien Ponthus
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares strongly rose at the open, following the lead of Asian markets which rallied from nine-month lows as China eased foreign investment limits and provided investors a temporary respite to trade war fears.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) was up 1.2 percent by 0810 GMT, while Germany's trade-sensitive DAX (GDAXI) jumped 1.4 percent.
European indexes will however probably close on a loss for the week and the month as the escalation of the United States' trade dispute with China and the European Union took its toll.
A deal struck by EU leaders on immigration in the early morning also help improved sentiment and triggered a spike in the euro.
"The migrant crisis in Europe threatened German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fragile coalition, which was in danger of collapsing if she left the summit without a deal", commented Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group.
Belgium's Galapagos posted the worst performance, plunging over 12 percent after disappointing drug trial results.
Spain's Caixabank (MC:CABK) led European stocks, up 6.5 percent after announcing the sale of its real estate business.
Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) rose about 3.4 percent despite failing a U.S. stress test.
"This was expected, in our view, and we see no material change to our view", Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said in a note.
As a whole, the European banking sector was firmly up, rising 1.7 percent but remains one of the worst performers of 2018 with a 11.5 percent decline since the beginning of the year.
The tech sector (SX8P), which was hard hit during the week as worries about global trade grew, also enjoyed a strong rebound with a 1.9 percent rise.
German lighting group Osram
French supermarket group Casino (PA:CASP) rose 4.5 percent after brokers' upgrades.