Europe rebounds on U.S. data

Trader checks share prices at Frankfurt Stock Exchange

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, after a seesaw session, as unexpectedly strong U.S. economic data lifted sentiment after a rash of mixed corporate results.

London's FTSE 100 closed up 0.5 percent to 5,175.3 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris gained 0.4 percent to 4,341.59, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax was down 0.9 percent to 4,877.49 in late trading (the German market was set to close at 1900 GMT).

The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, rose 0.2 percent, with the tobacco and telecom sub-indices among the biggest gainers.

The late spike in stocks came after better-than-expected durable goods numbers out of the United States. They showed factory orders rose by 1.1 percent in April, compared to expectation of a 0.4 percent increase.

That data reversed some of the negative sentiment prompted by a plunge in Deutsche Telekom (FDTE). Its shares fell 4.3 percent to a new low of 11.91 euros -- before recovering slightly -- after the Moody's rating agency cut the group's debt outlook to "negative" from "stable". That followed a poor set of results on Wednesday as the company struggles under a 67 billion euro debt load. (more) The group's shares were down 2.7 percent in late trading in Frankfurt.

The company's share plunge helped wipe out earlier gains that were spurred by an unexpected first-quarter profit from ING, the Dutch financial services group. Its shares rose 4.1 percent after it revealed its full-year earnings per share would exceed their 2001 level. (more)

Adding to the profit mix was German steel and engineering group ThyssenKrupp (FTKA). Its shares were down 0.8 percent in late Frankfurt trading after it said it would miss its full-year profit target as restructuring costs cut into its earnings. (more)

T-Online International, controlled by Deutsche Telekom, said on Thursday its first quarter core losses narrowed to 14 million euros ($13.0 million), down from 66.4 million a year ago as it cut losses at foreign units. (more) T-Online shares were up 2.2 percent in Frankfurt.

Shares in Six Continents (SXC), the world's second-largest hotels group, rose 0.2 percent as investors focused on its comment that prospects for a recovery were very strong rather than a 28 percent dip in half-year profits. (more)

Mobile phone operator Vodafone Group (VOD) rose 4.2 percent after a Japanese newspaper reported it planned to sell the fixed-line operations for its Japan Telecom unit. Japan Telecom denied the report. (more)

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone operator, slumped at one point by almost 7 percent -- although it later recovered to post a loss of about 3 percent -- on markets worries the company will warn on second-quarter revenues amid persistently weak handset demand. (more)

In Amsterdam the AEX index rose 1.1 percent and Milan's MIB30 index lost 0.2 percent, while the SMI in Zurich fell 0.3 percent.