LIVE MARKETS-Opening snapshot: It's risk-on!

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan (thyagaraju.adinarayan@thomsonreuters.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London.

OPENING SNAPSHOT: IT'S RISK-ON! (0735 GMT)

As expected, European stock markets are up this morning and while the rise is not spectacular - +1.6% - there's clearly a positive mood on the trading floors ahead of the long Easter weekend.

One clear sign is that shares in the Travel and Leisure, a typical gauge of coronavirus greed and fear, are up close to 5% and leading industry indexes. Cinema operator Cineworld and cruise operator Carnival are up 11% and 9% respectively.

Cyclicals are generally among today's early morning winners with miners, banks, cars and industrial goods registering strong gains.

London is leading with the FTSE 100 up 2.3% and the FTSE 250 up 2.8%.

Among the top 5 winners of the STOXX 600, 4 are from the UK.

Homebuilder Redrow scored the highest rise, up 14% after reporting it has put 80% of its workforce on government-sponsored furloughs and has been approved as an issuer in the government's emergency COVID financing scheme.

(Julien Ponthus)

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ON THE RADAR: DIVIDEND UPDATES, EARNINGS AND PRODUCTION CUTS (0648 GMT)

European futures are firming up about 10 minutes from the open and are well above 1% now.

Corporate headlines piling up this morning continue to paint a grim picture of the economic damage already caused by lockdowns and that’s whether or not they can be lifted in the coming weeks or months.

French catering and food services group Sodexo for instance estimated a 25% revenue hit in the second half of its 2020 financial year while Business software maker SAP cut its full-year earnings guidance, saying it now expects a single-digit decline after earlier forecasting 10% growth.

Airbus said it would cut the output of its best-selling A320 by a third to 40 aircraft a month to adjust to aviation's worst industrial crisis. That echoes Air France KLM reporting passengers fell 56.6% in March from a year earlier.

In the UK, fresh data showed that more than half of small manufacturers in England plan to cut jobs despite the government’s support programmes.

There’s some optimistic notes however with global automakers seeking to restart factories using new safety protocols or Just Eat Takeaway reporting that volumes recovered strongly by the end of March. Still the auto industry is suffering badly as exposed by Nissan Motor requesting a $4.6 billion worth commitment line.

Also, even if it’s on the small/mid cap segment, Restaurant Group announced it managed to raise about 57 million pounds in equity.

On the battered dividend front, the trend remains roughly the same: Diageo withdrew its outlook on its sales and operating profit growth and suspended capital returns programme for the rest of the year.

Bowing to regulatory pressure UBS and Credit Suisse decided to pay out part of their dividend for 2019 later this year. One notable exception this morning is miner Rio Tinto which said it would go ahead with a $3.7 billion dividend payment despite some of its peers freezing pay outs.

(Julien Ponthus)

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MORNING CALL: POSITIVE THINKING (0526 GMT)

The perception that the coronavirus outbreak is peaking in Europe and in North America has propped up sentiment from New York to Asian bourses and is making its way to the old continent this morning.

Hopes that an oil production cuts can be agreed upon shortly, combined with belief in more stimulus to come are clearly encouraging investors to take on some risk.

In this rather favourable context, European futures are currently up about 1% after an overnight rally on Wall Street and comfortable gains in Asia.

(Julien Ponthus)

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(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)