European markets trades higher as coronavirus remains in focus

European stocks traded higher on Thursday as investors digest the latest news regarding the coronavirus outbreak and efforts to ease lockdown measures.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up by more than 1 percent provisionally, with most sectors and major bourses in positive territory. Retail stocks were the best performers, climbing over 3 percent.

German e-commerce company Zalando and biotech firm Morphosys both saw their stock jump more than 11percent by mid-afternoon after posting strong first-quarter earnings.

At the other end of the European blue chip index, travel operator Tui slid by 9.9 percent