European shares rise as chipmakers bounce on Nvidia forecast

of European including , and rose in the range of 1.5% to 2.4% after quarterly above estimates, announced a and raised its quarterly dividend by 150%, on a post-split basis.

Nvidia's shares rose 6.5% in Frankfurt trading.

Flash business surveys for the euro zone and the UK later in the day are expected to show a slight improvement in May.

Defensive sectors such as utilities and real estate were on the backfoot, with Britain's tumbling nearly 8% after it announced plans to raise about 7 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) through a fully underwritten rights issue.

UK's FTSE 100 was broadly flat after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday called a general election for July 4.

Shares of Embracer slid 7.2% after the Swedish games developer said its finance chief would step down for personal reasons, and also reported fourth-quarter operating profit in line with market expectations.