Market Data 
(Reuters) – European stocks edged higher on Thursday after strong forecasts from AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:) lifted global chipmakers, while investors awaited the latest business surveys to gauge the euro zone economy’s outlook and interest rate path.
The pan-European index was up 0.2%, as of 0711 GMT, with the tech index gaining 1.2% to lead sectoral gains.
Shares of European semiconductor stocks including ASML (AS:), Infineon (OTC:) and ASM rose in the range of 1.5% to 2.4% after Nvidia forecast quarterly revenue above estimates, announced a stock split and raised its quarterly dividend by 150%, on a post-split basis.
Nvidia’s shares rose 6.5% in Frankfurt trading.
Flash business surveys for the euro zone and the UK later in the day are expected to show a slight improvement in May.
Defensive sectors such as utilities and real estate were on the backfoot, with Britain’s National Grid (LON:) tumbling nearly 8% after it announced plans to raise about 7 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) through a fully underwritten rights issue.
UK’s was broadly flat after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday called a general election for July 4.
Shares of Embracer slid 7.2% after the Swedish games developer said its finance chief would step down for personal reasons, and also reported fourth-quarter operating profit in line with market expectations.
