MILAN, July 27 (Reuters) - European stocks inched up inearly trading on Friday and were set to end the week at six-weekhighs, helped by an easing of fears over U.S tariffs, and goodcompany results.
Shares in consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser,construction groups Saint Gobain and Vinciand bank BBVA rose following well-received results,lifting the STOXX 600 up 0.16 percent by 0716 GMT.
The pan-European benchmark ended at its highest level sincemid-June on Thursday as hopes of a breakthrough in U.S.-EU tradetalks boosted carmakers, which rely on exports for growth. Itwas on track to end the week up 1.4 percent.
Autos were largely steady on Friday, with Renaultfalling 0.8 percent. The French carmaker achievedrecord profitability in the first half as emerging-market salessurged. Traders said results were in line with expectations.
Miner BHP Billiton rose 3.4 percent after BPagreed to buy its U.S. shale oil and gas assets for $10.5billion. BP shares fell 1 percent.(Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
BP (BP.)
