* Italian payments company Nexi gains on Intesa deal
* Shell slides on production estimate cut, impairment charge
* UK Q3 GDP revised up
(For a live blog on European stocks, type LIVE/ in an Eikon
news window)
By Sruthi Shankar
LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Friday,
as Italian shares outperformed on positive company updates,
although trading volumes thinned going into the Christmas
holiday.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, on course to
gain for a second week and about 1 percent below record highs.
That followed record-setting gains for Wall Street on
Thursday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said an
initial U.S.-China trade deal would be signed in early January.
"2019 was a year dominated by the U.S.-China trade war and
Brexit and at least in the near term, we seem to have wrapped up
on those two fronts," David Madden, market analyst at CMC
Markets in London.
Milan-listed shares outperformed with an 0.6% rise,
boosted by Italy's biggest utility, Enel. Its shares
rose 1% after Moody's improved its outlook on the Latin American
unit Enel Americas to positive.
Payments group Nexi gained 0.7% after Intesa
SanPaolo said it was selling its retailers' payment
business to Nexi in a 1 billion-euro ($1.1 billion) deal.
Germany's DAX and France's CAC gained about
0.2%.
London's exporter-heavy FTSE 100 was flat as the
pound recovered after a tumultuous run on fears of a hard
Brexit.
The final reading on Britain's third quarter growth showed
the economy grew a little faster than first estimated and the
country's current account deficit shrank to its smallest since
2012.
The British parliament is set to vote on UK Prime Minister
Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement bill. The Johnson
government's majority in parliament means the bill should pass
easily.
Among individual stocks, Royal Dutch Shell slipped
0.8% after saying it expects impairment charges of up to $2.3
billion in the fourth quarter.
Adidas was down 0.4% after Nike reported
disappointing growth in North America, its biggest market.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in London; editing by Larry King)
