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April 23 (Reuters) - European stocks scaled on Tuesday
to their highest levels in more than a week, driven by the
technology sector as investors found comfort in upbeat corporate
earnings, while UK's FTSE 100 Index climbed to hit an all-time
peak.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.6%, as of
0712 GMT, boosted by a nearly 2% jump in technology
shares.
Helping the tech sector's rise was a 4.6% gain in SAP
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.
Shares of Novartis added 4.6% as the Swiss
drugmaker raised its full-year outlook after reporting
first-quarter results that surpassed expectations.
On the flip side, Randstad, the world's biggest
employment agency, reported disappointing quarterly core
earnings, sending shares of the Dutch firm down 6.7% to the
bottom of the STOXX.
Later in the day, investors will parse April euro zone
purchasing manufacturer's data, that could shed light on the
state of the currency union's economic health.
Elsewhere, UK's exporter-focused FTSE 100 climbed
0.6% to notch an all-time high of 8,071.96 points.