* Trade-sensitive miners, tech stocks jump on trade hopes
* White House comments spur small weekly gain for STOXX 600
* Sweden's SEB sinks to bottom of STOXX 600
(For a live blog on European stocks, type LIVE/ in an Eikon
news window)
By Sruthi Shankar
Nov 15 (Reuters) - European shares were moving closer to a
sixth-straight week of gains on Friday following a record close
on Wall Street after bullish comments from a White House
official on U.S.-China trade talks boosted appetite for riskier
assets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% by 0932
GMT, inching back to a four-year high.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said late on
Thursday Washington and Beijing were getting close to a trade
agreement, citing what he called very constructive talks with
Beijing about ending a 16-month trade war.
Miners were the top gainers on the day, up about
1.5%, followed by technology stocks.
Shares in chipmakers Infineon, STMicroelectronics
and ASML Holding rose between 0.8% and 1.4%,
after industry bellwether Applied Materials forecast a
strong first quarter ahead of the 5G rollout in key markets.
"Maybe, just maybe we are finally nearing a long-awaited
indication from President Trump that the protracted period of
market adversity is mercilessly nearing its end," said Stephen
Innes, a market strategist at AxiTrader.
The STOXX 600 was still on course for a tiny gain in a week
that saw lacklustre economic indicators, a profit warning from
automaker Daimler and rocky Spanish politics.
Telecom shares were boosted by a 2.5% gain in Orange
after France's biggest telecoms operator said it was
preparing to split its mobile towers unit into a separate
company.
However, news that Britain's opposition Labour Party said it
would nationalise parts of the telecoms provider BT's
network if it won power in the Dec. 12 election, capped gains on
the sector index.
BT shares were flat, while Vodafone dropped 0.4% and
TalkTalk fell 3.5%.
Shares in Saipem gained 2.1% after Bloomberg
reported the Italian oil services group was considering
combining with its rival Subsea 7. Subsea shares rose
3.9%.
"From an industrial point of view, the integration of the
two entities would strengthen the exposure of SPM in the
offshore business and could generate cost synergies," an analyst
at Equitas wrote in a note.
Sweden's SEB sank 14.3% after the bank said it had
been informed a broadcaster would air a programme on suspected
money laundering in the Baltics that would include information
concerning the bank.
Stockholm-listed shares dropped 0.4%, while
Norwegian shares were hit by salmon producers Mowi
and SalMar after the companies said the U.S.
Department of Justice had issued subpoenas.
The top gainer on the STOXX 600 was Danish software company
Simcorp, up 3.8% after better-than-expected results.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Susan Mathew in Bengaluru;
Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Bernard Orr)
