European shares rise as investors play safe with defensive stocks

European shares on Thursday recovered from a selloff, as healthcare stocks surged to a record high even though risks from a hawkish Federal Reserve and Washington's new sanctions on Russia kept investors on edge, reports Reuters.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.3 per cent after losing 1.5 per cent in their worst session in a month on Wednesday. Sectors more resilient to economic downturn led the gains, with healthcare .SXDP jumping 1.4 per cent.
But a decline in basic material .SXPP and oil stocks .SXEP saw London's commodity-heavy FTSE 100 index .FTSE underperform regional peers.
Shell SHEL.L dropped 1.8 per cent after saying it would write down up to $5 billion in the first quarter as a result of its decision to exit Russia, higher than previously disclosed.
European shares fared better that stocks markets in Asia and the United States, which weakened after minutes of the Fed's March meeting showed that officials generally agreed to cut up to $95 billion a month from the central bank's asset holdings to fight surging inflation.