MILAN, March 20 (Reuters) - A well-received strategy update from ad firm Publicis helped shore up European stocks on Tuesday after concerns over increased regulation and taxation of large tech companies prompted selling overnight on Wall Street.
Publicis PUBP.PA rose more than 2 percent after the world's third-biggest advertising group said it was doubling down on efforts to become a consulting partner for global advertisers online in an attempt to kick-start sluggish growth. 0825 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index was up 0.2 percent, while the UK's FTSE .FTSE rebounded 0.4 percent after hitting a 15-month low in the previous session.
Advertisers and media stocks are among the worst performers in Europe over the last 12 months, as they struggle to compete against big U.S. internet players like Google GOOGL.O and Facebook FB.O , which now face growing regulatory scrutiny.
The European Union is proposing a 3 percent tax on turnover of large companies with significant digital revenues, according to a draft proposal seen by Reuters. .SX8P stocks fell 0.1 percent, also weighed down by a 0.7 percent drop in German software maker SAP SAPG.DE on a negative read-across from disappointing results at U.S. peer Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) ORCL.N .
In M&A news, Fenner FENR.L surged 25 percent after French tyre maker Michelin MICP.PA announced plans to buy the British engineering company for 1.2 billion pounds. a sell rating from UBS sent shares in France's BIC BICP.PA down 5.5 percent to the bottom of the STOXX.