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Telecom Italia gains as CEO set for second term

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Novartis raises guidance after beating Q1 expectations

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SAP rises after Q1 cloud backlog accelerates

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EZ business in services-led bounce in April, PMI survey

shows

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STOXX 600 up 0.6%

(Updated at 0838 GMT)

By Johann M Cherian

April 23 (Reuters) - European stocks scaled to their

highest levels in more than a week on Tuesday, driven by the

healthcare and technology sector, as investors found comfort in

upbeat corporate earnings, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index climbed

to hit an all-time peak.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.6%, as of

0838 GMT, boosted by a nearly 0.9% jump in healthcare stocks

.

Helping the sector's rise was a 4.8% gain in Novartis

as the Swiss drugmaker raised its full-year outlook

after reporting first-quarter results that surpassed

expectations.

The tech sector added 1.8%, lifted by SAP's

3.7% rise after the German company reported a 24% jump

in first-quarter cloud revenue at 3.93 billion euros ($4.19

billion), buoyed by demand for its enterprise resource planning

software.

On the flip side, Randstad, the world's biggest

employment agency, reported disappointing quarterly core

earnings, sending shares of the Dutch firm down 6.2%, among top

decliners on the STOXX.

"It's been very much a mixed bag going into this

earnings season and I don't think we would necessarily expect

anything particular to stand out," said Fiona Cincotta, senior

market analyst at City Index.

"But again, improving economic recovery and lower

interest rate expectations are what's driving (broader) optimism

on this side of the pond."

On the economic data front, business activity overall in the

euro zone expanded at its fastest pace in nearly a year this

month as a buoyant recovery in the bloc's dominant service

industry more than offset a deeper downturn in manufacturing.

Equities have been making a steady recovery from over a

month's low, given no signs of geopolitical tensions in the

Middle East escalating, while a number of upbeat corporate

reports and hopes of imminent interest rates kept the risk

appetite buoyant.

Overall, first-quarter earnings are expected to decrease

12.1% from a year ago, LSEG data showed last week.

Among others, Telecom Italia gained 4.3% to

top the Italian main index after CEO Pietro Labriola

appeared set to secure a second term as leading investor Vivendi

decided to abstain in a shareholder vote on the renewal

of the former phone monopoly's board.

DNB dropped 3.6%, weighing on Oslo's all-share

index after Norway's largest bank disappointed

expectations on quarterly net interest income.

Elsewhere, UK's exporter-focused FTSE 100 climbed

0.2% after notching an all-time intraday high of 8,075.52 points

earlier in the day, with JD Sports Fashion among top

gainers after proposing to buy American athletic fashion

retailer Hibbett Inc ( HIBB ) for about $1.08 billion.