(MENAFN- AFP) European main stock markets drifted upwards on Monday as traders focused on the outlook for US stimulus and digested data from the eurozone's biggest economies Germany -- where industrial output faltered -- and France.
Heavyweight miners fell, while shares in Europe's biggest bank HSBC slipped amid a report that it was considering a float of its British arm.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index ending the day up 0.11 percent at 6,559.48 points and the CAC 40 in Paris also added 0.11 percent to 4,134.1 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose 0.25 percent to 9,195.17 points despite official data showing German industrial production shrank again in October, with economic activity down in all major sectors.
Meanwhile France should post economic growth of 0.5 percent in the last quarter of this year, the Bank of France said, citing a "clear" rise in manufacturing and deliveries in most sectors.
Last Friday, official data showed that the US jobless rate dropped to a five-year low of 7.0 percent in November, from 7.3 percent in October.
The Labor Department added that the world's biggest economy had added a healthy 203,000 jobs last month.
"Last Friday's US jobs report is strong enough to warrant the Fed to announce a tapering of its monthly bond purchases at next week's" monetary policy meeting, said Neil MacKinnon, economist at VTB Capital financial group.
The steady trickle of upbeat data increased the chances that the Federal Reserve would begin to wind down its stimulus programme sooner rather than later.
Fears of a reduction in the Fed's $85 billion a month bond-buying scheme -- which has been credited with fuelling an equities rally in world markets -- pushed down stocks last week.
However, analysts said the US central bank may hold off any taper at its December meeting because the pace of jobs growth is still below the levels seen at the start of the year, while fourth-quarter economic growth is expected to be sluggish.
The OECD meanwhile said on Monday that growth is strengthening in most advanced economies, beefing up the argument in favour of pulling back on stimulus.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro climbed to $1.3723 from $1.3705 late in New York on Friday.
The dollar rose to 103.21 yen from 102.85.
The British pound rose to 1.1955 euros and $1.6388.
In India meanwhile, the rupee strengthened against the dollar to 60.84, its strongest level since August after the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, widely seen as business friendly, recorded a string of victories in state elections.
Gold prices rose to $1,237 an ounce on the London Bullion Market from $1,233 on Friday.
US stocks pushed higher Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.12 percent to16,039.27 points in midday trading.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.27 percent to 1,810.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.22 percent to 4,071.26 points.
Asian stock markets mostly ended higher on Monday in response to a surprisingly sharp fall in the US jobless rate last Friday, analysts said.
Japan's shares enjoyed healthy gains despite the Tokyo government's downgrade of third-quarter growth, which has raised questions about the strength of a recovery fuelled by state spending.
Miners drop in London
Shares in mining companies dropped amid weaker imports by China, the world's second-biggest economy, traders said.
BHP Billiton slipped 0.06 percent to 1,844 pence, Antofagasta lost 0.98 percent to 761.50 pence and Rangold dropped 1.54 percent to 3,977 pence.
HSBC slid 0.24 percent to 657.7 pence, as the Financial Times newspaper reported that the lender was mulling a possible flotation of its British division, citing people familiar with the matter.
HSBC's British arm could float with a total stock market capitalisation of about £20 billion, in a move that would help address new regulatory demands for banks to ring-fence their retail banking operations, the daily said.
Shares in European aerospace giant EADS, the maker of Airbus aircraft, rose 0.82 percent to 50.49 euros in Paris after it announced plans to cut 5,800 jobs in its defence and space division over three years.
Press reports over the past weeks had said as many as 8,000 jobs could go.
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