By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets moved higher on Wednesday, as investors welcomed second-quarter GDP data from the euro zone that showed the region has emerged from a six-quarter-long recession.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.3% to close at 308.62, marking a fifth straight day of gains.

Victoria Clarke, economist at Investec Securities, said the upbeat euro-zone data had already largely been priced in, explaining why the index failed to post a stronger gain.

"We've seen a wave of survey data coming through a bit more positive lately, and yes the GDP was a bit better than expected, but still in the range of what people had been looking at. So that's why we're not seeing a big rally today," she said.

"It was a good headline for the press, but for the markets there wasn't a whole not of new news," she added.

Posting the biggest gain in the pan-European index, Subsea 7 SA rallied 8.5% after the oil-field-services firm reported a smaller-than-expected loss in the second quarter.

Rentokil Initial PLC climbed 6.1% after the pest-control and hygiene firm reported a 5.2% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit.

On a more downbeat note, shares of RWE AG lost 4.5%, after the German utility firm reported a 38% drop in first-half net profit.

ThyssenKrupp AG fell 1.3%, after the German industrial conglomerate posted a loss in the fiscal third quarter.

The end of Europe's recession

European markets started to move higher after data showed the euro zone has emerged from an 18-month recession. The region's gross domestic product rose 0.3% in the second quarter, ahead of market expectations of a 0.1% to 0.2% expansion. The currency bloc's GDP contracted by 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

But even if the data paint a rosier picture of the area, it is too early to talk of a sustainable recovery, analysts said. Read: Euro-zone GDP: Time to pop the champagne?

Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Eurozone Forecast, said "that even in those countries with the sharpest rebounds the pace of recovery is unlikely to be sustained in the second half of the year."

"Last weeks' retail sales data underlined the weakness of household spending power even in the north; credit is still only flowing to firms in certain countries, and demand from emerging markets is slowing down," he said. "More needs to be done if the apparent recovery of the past few months is to be more than simply a bright spot in an otherwise difficult few years," he added.

Data showed the German economy grew 0.7% in the second quarter, while the French economy expanded 0.5%, both numbers were ahead of expectations.

Germany's DAX 30 index rose 0.3% to 8,438.12, while France's CAC 40 index rose 0.5% to 4,114.20.

Bank of England minutes

The U.K. was also in the spotlight on Wednesday, after minutes from the August Bank of England meeting showed eight out of nine Monetary Policy Committee members were in favor of adopting forward guidance on policy.

The BOE announced last week that it would keep its key lending rate at a record low of 0.5% until unemployment falls to a threshold of 7%, subject to certain conditions related to inflation and financial stability.

In that vein, data from the Office for National Statistics released Wednesday showed the U.K's unemployment rate held steady at 7.8% in June, broadly in line with expectations. Additionally, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits dropped 29,200 in July, much better than expected by analysts.

Clarke from Investec explained that the markets interpreted the minutes as hawkish because of the one dissenter, while the better-than-expected claimant counts further added to the negative mood.

"The big drop in the claimant counts suggest a bit more momentum in the labor market and that possibly we'll reach the 7% threshold more quickly," she said.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index closed 0.4% lower at 6,587.43.

Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) lost 1.2% in London. German cable network operator Kabel Deutschland Holding AG said preliminary discussions with the European Union on its takeover by Vodafone have advanced and are constructive. Kabel Deutschland shares fell 0.5%.

Outside the major indexes, United Internet AG put on 4.6% after the company said first-half sales jumped 10.3% to an all-time high of 1.283 billion euros ($1.7 billion).

Swiss Life Holding AG jumped 5.3% after the insurer posted a 30% rise in first-half profit.

Shares of Celesio AG dropped 1.1% after the German health-care firm cut its earnings outlook for the year, citing continued competition in Germany and negative currency effects.

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