The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2% by 7.28am GMT, but was far from making up all the previous session’s 2% losses.

Germany’s exporter-heavy DAX, which has been the most sensitive to trade tensions, managed a 0.5% gain.

The sectors worst hit by the trade-related selloff were Tuesday’s strongest gainers, with banks, basic resources, and oil stocks leading the way, while tech stocks also recovered.

Merger and acquisition news drove the biggest movers.

British satellite firm Inmarsat fell 6.3%, the worst on the STOXX 600, after France’s Eutelsat said it does not intend to make an offer for the firm, having said on Monday it was considering a possible bid.

Eutelsat shares rose 2.9%.

Bid speculation, meanwhile, boosted French payments processor Ingenico 4.2% after Bloomberg reported on Monday that the firm was drawing preliminary interest from several private equity firms.

In results-driven moves, the food and biopharma testing firm Eurofins jumped 5.4% after saying it was raising its revenue target for the year, having received antitrust clearance for its acquisition of US food company Covance.

Austrian paper pulp maker Andritz rose 4.6% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to a “buy”, a day after the firm clinched a deal to buy US company Xerium Technologies.