Stocks in Europe hovered around the flatline Thursday morning, on the last trading day of the quarter for most markets in the region.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.4 percent higher with most sectors trading in positive territory. Autos were the top gainers, driven higher by Renault. The car maker's shares were up by 5 percent following a media report that the company could merge with Nissan. The shares traded close to a 10-year high earlier on the news, but the firm has declined to comment on the report.
Electrocomponents was also among the top performers after a rating upgrade. Furthermore, Swiss Re rose 2 percent after a report that the Japanese group SoftBank is looking at buying a 25 percent stake in the reinsurer.
However, market focus remains fixed on the performance of tech stocks after the sell-off on Wall Street. The sector initially traded higher but fell into negative territory by late morning trade.
More corporate news and data
In other corporate news, Deutsche Bank Chief John Cryan sent a letter to its employees vowing full commitment to the bank after reports that he could soon be sacked.
In Asia, stocks closed higher following news that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Markets shrugged off the weakness seen on Wall Street where a technology stock sell-off led to sharp losses for the sector, with Amazon and Netflix down by more than 4 percent.
In terms of data, German unemployment figures reached a record low in March at 5.3 percent, according to new data. Meanwhile, the U.K.'s current account deficit was £18.4 billion in the last quarter of 2017, lower than what analysts had expected.
Earlier, the latest Nationwide housing prices in the U.K. showed a drop of 0.2 percent month-on-month in March, below the consensus.
"We continue to think that house prices will flatline in 2018, hitting consumers' confidence and strengthening the case for the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England) to raise interest rates just once this year," Samuel Tombs, chief U.K. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in an email.
Thursday also marks a year since U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the process to leave the European Union. In 365 days, the U.K. will no longer be a full member of the EU though there will be a transition period of about 21 months.
