By Mike Bird 

European equities followed Asian markets higher Thursday, following the announcement of a prospective deal between major oil-producing nations to cut production levels.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.64% in midmorning trade, led by a 4.12% rise in oil and gas stocks and a 2.59% rise in basic resources.

In the U.S., S&P 500 futures were up very slightly, rising 0.02%. Changes in futures don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell.

Oil prices dipped slightly after a rally of more than 5% late Wednesday. West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices dipped 0.3% to $46.91 a barrel, and Brent crude prices fell 1.2% to $48.64 after the previous day's rally.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said they had proposed cutting their collective output to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels a day, down from August levels of 33.2 million barrels a day. The group, however, deferred the task of completing a plan to make those cuts until November.

Analysts were cautious about the impact of the deal.

"We're not actually talking about a very large reduction here, it's more like a freeze at pretty high production levels," said Mike Bell, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "It's very hard for oil to go much above $60 per barrel because U.S. producers pretty much all start to become profitable again."

Goldman Sachs commodities analysts held their end-of-year forecast for WTI crude oil prices at $43 for 2016, and $53 for 2017.

"This agreement is the first since the oil bear market started in 2014 and as such will likely provide support to prices, at least in the short term," said the analysts in a research note early Thursday morning. "However uncertainty is set to remain high in coming months, with so far no comments from the Saudi minister."

In the U.S., S&P 500 futures were up very slightly, rising 0.02%. Changes in futures don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell.

Banks were also among the gainers in Europe, with the Stoxx 600 Banks index up 0.53%. Deutsche Bank AG shares rose 0.56%. The German lender's shares have been watched closely by investors following The Wall Street Journal's report that the bank has been asked to pay $14 billion by U.S. authorities to settle a set of high-profile mortgage-securities probes stemming from the financial crisis.

Commerzbank AG bucked the trend, with shares falling 1.99% after the bank announced that it was scrapping its dividends and laying off around 20% of its workforce.

In currency markets, the yen fell by 0.5% against the U.S. dollar, touching its weakest levels since last week's Bank of Japan meeting. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda gave a speech in early European hours, reiterating that the central bank could cut benchmark interest rates or expand asset purchases further.

Sovereign bond yields ticked up slightly, with Germany's 10-year bund yield rising from minus 0.146% at Wednesday's close to minus 0.117%.

Asian shares rose across the board following the OPEC news, led by a 1.4% climb for Japan's Nikkei 225.

India's Sensex index dropped 1.64% after an announcement that it had conducted what the military described as "surgical strikes" against terrorist bases in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Kenan Machado

and Ese Erheriene contributed to this article.

Write to Mike Bird at Mike.Bird@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2016 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT)