European stocks opened mildly higher Thursday, boosted by buoyant trade in Asia and the US and a rise in oil prices.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.25 percent.

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European stocks got a fillip from their Asian counterparts on Thursday as well as the bounce in US stocks after a slew of economic data.

Asian markets were bolstered by a rise in oil prices which on Thursday remained near the June highs reached in the previous session. Traders said the price dips early on Thursday were largely a result of profit-taking following strong rises the day before, Reuters reported.

In other news, shares of South Korea's Samsung Electronics jumped 3.77 percent after activist US hedge fund Elliott Management published a letter calling on the South Korean firm's board of directors to reshape the business, including splitting the company and increasing its dividend.

Asian and European markets are also getting a bounce from the US, where stocks closed higher on Wednesday due to the rise in oil prices and some positive data, with US factory orders for August and services sector activity in September both coming in better-than-expected.

However, other data showed that US companies created jobs at the slowest pace in six months in September, as the labor market showed further signs of tightening, according to a report Wednesday from ADP and Moody's Analytics.

ADP's report is seen as a preview of the US government's monthly nonfarm payrolls report, due Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, which will be closely watched by global markets as it is likely to influence the timing of the US Federal Reserve's next interest rate hike.

In other news, U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond is heading to Wall Street to try to convince some of America's largest banks that London will remain an international financial hub despite the uncertainty thrown up by the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union.