Trade concerns keep a lid on Europe's rise, upbeat earnings boost Germany
* Siemens top boost to STOXX 600 after profit beat
* German industry output rises but outlook still weak
* Bank stocks down for the third day (Adds details, quote; Updates prices)
By Medha Singh
May 8 (Reuters) - German shares led gains in Europe on Wednesday as robust earnings from the country's Siemens and Wirecard overshadowed mounting worries over a U.S.-China trade deal.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was marginally higher by 0850 GMT, a day after it hit its lowest in more than four weeks. Germany's DAX rose 0.4 percent while the blue-chip STOXX 50 index was up 0.3 percent.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will travel to Washington on Thursday for two days of trade talks, in a bid to avoid a sharp increase in tariffs on Chinese goods that U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose over the weekend.
"The fact that Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is still expected to arrive in Washington to keep the talks going is probably the reason why this has not turned into an absolute meltdown," Elwin de Groot, head of macro strategy at Rabobank, said.
The biggest boost to the pan-region index was Siemens , which climbed 5 percent after reporting better-than-expected profit from its industrial business in the second quarter, as the German industrial group began separating and spinning off its struggling power and gas business.
It shares pushed industrial stocks up 1 percent, the sector's steepest rise in four weeks.
Payments company Wirecard advanced after raising its profit outlook for 2019.
Wirecard shares and Spain-based IT company Amadeus, which rose 4 percent after upbeat first-quarter results helped technology stocks' rise.
Britain's FTSE 100 dipped, weighed down by Imperial Brands shares after a drop in tobacco volumes in the half-yearly report was bigger than market expectations.
Rival British American Tobacco also fell after the report.
German reinsurer Munich Re slid after reporting a 23 percent decline in net profit in the first quarter as a result of higher claims and weighed down insurers broadly .
Poste Italiane's slipped 3 percent on falling first-quarter profit as capital gains from government bond sales declined and costs rose.
Bank stocks, sensitive to growth-related data, extended a decline from the previous session where they fell more than 2 percent.
German industrial output unexpectedly increased in March, but the economy ministry warned the outlook remained subdued as Europe's biggest economy suffered from trade frictions and Brexit nerves.
This comes a day after European Commission decision to lower its forecasts for euro zone economic growth. (Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru, editing by Larry King and Andrew Heavens)
