LONDON (Reuters) - European shares enjoyed a modest bounce on Tuesday, recovering slightly after ratcheting trade tensions had sent stock markets into a spiral as investors shed risky assets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) was up 0.2 percent by 0728 GMT, but was far from making up all the previous session's 2 percent losses.
Germany's exporter-heavy DAX (GDAXI), which has been the most sensitive to trade tensions, managed a 0.5 percent gain.
The sectors worst hit by the trade-related selloff were Tuesday's strongest gainers, with banks, basic resources (SXPP) and oil stocks (SXEP) leading the way, while tech stocks (SX8P) also recovered.
Merger and acquisition news drove the biggest movers.
British satellite firm Inmarsat (L:ISA) fell 6.3 percent, the worst on the STOXX 600, after France's Eutelsat (PA:ETL) said it did not intend to make an offer for the firm, having said on Monday it was considering a possible bid.
Eutelsat shares rose 2.9 percent.
Bid speculation meanwhile boosted French payments processor Ingenico (PA:INGC) 4.2 percent after Bloomberg reported on Monday that the firm was drawing preliminary interest from several private equity firms.
In results-driven moves, the food and biopharma testing firm Eurofins (PA:EUFI) jumped 5.4 percent after saying it was raising its revenue target for the year, having received antitrust clearance for its acquisition of U.S. food company Covance.
Austrian paper pulp maker Andritz (VI:ANDR) rose 4.6 percent after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) upgraded the stock to a "buy", a day after the firm clinched a deal to buy U.S. company Xerium Technologies.