EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Rise For Sixth Day In A Row

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets rose for a sixth-straight day on Wednesday, boosted by solid Chinese export data and well-received corporate results.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.8% to end at 332, marking the highest close in almost three weeks.

Among notable movers in Europe, shares of Société Générale SA gained 4.7% after the French bank said it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter. It also said it has repaid money it borrowed from the European Central Bank two years ago through the ECB's long-term refinancing operations (LTRO).

Shares of ING Group NV climbed 3.6% after the Dutch financial firm said underlying pretax profit at its banking business more than tripled in the fourth quarter.

Shares of Heineken NV (HINKY) rose 0.4% after the Dutch brewer said it expects improved performance in 2014 as the global economy recovers.

On a more downbeat note, shares of Telenor ASA slid 6.9% after the Norwegian telecom firm reported earnings below market expectations.

Another Norwegian firm, Yara International ASA dropped 6.8% after the fertilizer producer reported a sharp fall in fourth-quarter profit.

The broader markets were boosted by better-than-expected data from China. Trade numbers for January showed exports rose 10.6% compared with a year earlier, far exceeding economists' expectations. Markets tend to celebrate a rise in Chinese exports, because it signals a pickup in global demand. Asia markets closed higher.

On the numbers front, data showed euro-zone industrial production dropped 0.7% in December, slipping more than forecast. Shaking off the negative data, Germany's DAX 30 index gained 0.7% to 9,540.00, and France's CAC 40 index climbed 0.5% to 4,305.50.

U.K. stocks underperformed most of the major European indexes after the Bank of England updated its forward guidance. The central bank said it will now monitor a range of indicators such as wages, working hours, labor productivity and unemployment, rather than mainly pegging its monetary policy to an improvement in the joblessness level, as it had done since August. Read: Forward Guidance 2.0: Is Carney just digging with a larger shovel?

At that time, the BOE introduced its first forward-guidance framework and said interest rates would stay at a record low until the unemployment rate at least dropped to 7%. At the press conference for the bank's quarterly inflation report on Wednesday, Governor Mark Carney said the joblessness level is likely to reach the 7% threshold by spring this year, but indicated that rates will stay low until the second quarter of 2015.

Several analysts, however, argued that a rate hike could come as soon as August.

"Without an overtly dovish asymmetry in the BOE's reaction function, and things like threshold changes and time-contingent guidance essentially ruled out, there is hawkish news for the market to digest," Nomura analysts said in a note.

The BOE also lifted its 2014 growth forecast for the U.K. to 3.4%, from a previous estimate of 2.8%.

The pound (GBPUSD) rose after the guidance overhaul, trading at $1.6580, up from $1.6450 late Tuesday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index closed slightly higher at 6,675.03, down from an intraday high of 6,708.17.

Tullow Oil PLC slumped 6.3% in London after the oil and gas explorer said it is considering selling part of its stake in a Ugandan oil field.

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