European stocks advance amid China’s GDP, US debt ceiling relief

European stocks increased for a seventh consecutive day which makes it their longest winning streak this year, as economic data from China showed the worlds second largest economy growth accelerated for the first time in three quarters.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.3% to 316.96 at 8:32 a.m. in London. It has climbed 1.7% this week as U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a measure extending the government’s borrowing authority until early 2014 and ending a government shutdown that started Oct. 1. FTSE 100, the UK benchmark index added 0.3%, while German DAX 30 remained almost unchanged.

“China’s GDP figures reported a steady growth rate coming out in line with expectations,” Jonathan Sudaria, a trader at Capital Spreads in London, wrote in a note for Bloomberg. “Bulls will be content with the fact that the recent downward trend of the last two quarters has been broken.”

Chinas gross domestic product added 7.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

In European corporate world, Schindler gained 4.3% to 127.40 Swiss francs, its biggest gain since November 2011, after the elevator maker said it will spend as much as 1.06 billion francs in a modified share buyback program.

Ziggo NV jumped 1.5% to 30.86 euros after reiterating its full-year forecast for so-called organic-sales growth of about 1%. The Dutch cable-television provider, which this week rejected an offer from Liberty Global Plc, reported third-quarter revenue of 391 million euros ($535 million), compared with analysts’ estimate of 393 million euros.

Cap Gemini advanced 2.6% to 46.78 euros after starting acquisition talks to buy Areva’s software-services unit Euriware.

Grifols SA slipped 3.1% to 29.18 euros after Alken Asset Management LLP sold a 2.7% stake in Europe’s biggest maker of blood-plasma products. UBS AG said it placed the shares at 29 euros each.

LOreal shares advanced more than 2% after Shiseido Co. said today that it has entered exclusive talks to sell two of its Paris-based cosmetics businesses, Carita International SA and Laboratoires Decleor SAS, to its bigger rival, adding that L’Oreal has offered 230 million euros for a possible buyout.