LONDON (Reuters) - Italian banks shone in lacklustre European trading on Thursday after results led by Unicredit (MI:CRDI) whose results indicated its turnaround was gathering pace.
Europe's STOXX 600 slipped 0.1 percent while both the eurozone's broader stocks and the blue chip index fell 0.2 percent.
Financials were a bright spot on the benchmarks for the second day running, with Unicredit up 4.4 percent after rising revenues and lower loan losses boosted it to better than expected first-quarter profits.
Italy's banking index tested its highest levels in more than a year as Mediobanca, Ubi Banca, and Banco BPM rose 1.8 to 3.5 percent in concert.
Telecoms stocks were among the worst-performing with BT down 1.7 percent after it announced 4,000 job cuts in a restructuring plan to recover from a year it said was 'challenging'.
Shares in Britain's biggest telecoms company have not recovered from a 20 percent drop after it revealed accounting malpractices in Italy in January.
Spain's Telefonica (MC:TEF) also fell 1.7 percent after its results.
A setback in its generic drug Advair's approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent Hikma shares down more than 8 percent, the worst-performing European stock.
Broker downgrades weighed on some of the top fallers. Centrica (LON:CNA) fell 5.8 percent after JP Morgan cut it to 'underweight' from 'overweight', while a rating cut from Citigroup (NYSE:C) sent Hannover Re down 5 percent.
