European markets move up Today on cautious gains last week

European markets hiked on Monday as it wrestles to continue on a positive trend related to the close of trading last week.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.2 percent Monday’s late morning, as the health care stocks rose 0.9 percent and basic resources declined by 1.2 percent.

European stocks closed higher last Friday, while the investors absorbed economic data from the region including a preliminary U.K. second-quarter GDP reading.

In addition to that the data of inflation in July for France, Spain, and Italy, as well as the euro zone industrial production in June.

U.K. showed the economy contracted in the second quarter of 2022 as the country’s cost-of-living crisis hit home, according to its released data.

The data showed that GDP decreased by 0.1 percent quarter on quarter in the second three months of the year, less than the 0.3 percent contraction expected by analysts.

The consumer price index advanced 8.5 percent in July from a year ago, which below expectations due to slipping of energy prices.