European shares open higher led by miners, healthcare

(Reuters) – European shares opened higher on Wednesday, with mining stocks leading gains on higher metal prices, while Swiss drugmaker Roche lifted healthcare stocks.

By 0707 GMT, the pan-European gained 0.4%.

Mining stocks added 0.9% as prices of most base metals trended up. [MET/L]

Roche jumped 3.1% after the Swiss drugmaker said it had been made aware of an inadvertent disclosure in a study of its new immunotherapy for patients with lung cancer using an experimental class of drugs known as anti-TIGIT.

The broader healthcare index added 0.8%.

Investors will be eyeing euro zone Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for the month of August, due later in the day, to assess the state of the continental economy.

Separately, PMIs from Germany, the UK and France will also be on investors’ radar.

Among individual stocks, Societe Generale (OTC:) rose 2.0% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the French bank to “overweight” from “equal-weight.”

Orsted (OTC:) added 1.6% after the U.S. Interior Department approved the construction of a 704 megawatt (MW) wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, which is owned by the renewable energy group.