Auto leads European shares higher, Fed minutes in focus

By Pranav Kashyap and Ankika Biswas

(Reuters) - European shares edged up on Wednesday, led by automobile stocks, while investors awaited the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's July meeting to gauge the direction of global monetary policy.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.3% higher, having snapped a five-day winning streak on Tuesday, with all the major regional bourses logging gains.

Automobile led sectoral gains with a 1.4% advance, rising for the seventh straight day, while basic resources rose 0.9%.

With no major data coming out of Europe on Wednesday, the focus was on the Fed minutes, due at 1800 GMT, which are expected to reinforce a dovish stance.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labour Department said U.S. employers added far fewer jobs than originally reported in the year through March, underscoring growing concerns about the health of the jobs market.

"A deteriorating labour market will allow the Fed to highlight both sides of the dual mandate and investors should expect the Fed to prepare markets for a cut at the September meeting," said Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial.

Investors were also treading carefully ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming on Friday, where all eyes will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech.

Among individual stocks, healthcare company Demant rose 2%% after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "underweight".

Alcon fell 3% after the Swiss eye care group reported a smaller-than-expected rise in second-quarter sales.

Grifols rose nearly 3% after Bloomberg News reported that Brookfield had asked banks to backstop up to $10.6 billion of debt for a potential take-private deal for the Spanish pharmaceutical firm.

Moncler rose 2% after Bernstein upgraded the Italian luxury group to "outperform" from "market-perform".

On a medium-term outlook for European stocks, Aaron Barnfather, portfolio manager at Lazard Asset Management said Europe has become more shareholder-friendly due to the significant amount of buybacks taking place.

"That's a significant opportunity that international investors haven't started to focus on yet," he said.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Eileen Soreng and Christina Fincher)