European shares surged on Wednesday, as a slew of upbeat corporate earnings lifted sentiment, although gains were tempered after heavyweight Novo Nordisk missed estimates for its second-quarter operating profit.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 was up 0.8% at 492.21 points, as of 0830 GMT, inching its way towards the key 500 mark. All European markets were trading in the green, with most of them notching gains of close to 1%.

Among sectors, healthcare was the only one in the red, slipping 0.1%.

Novo Nordisk dropped 3.4% after the obesity drugmaker posted quarterly operating profit below expectations and cut its annual profit outlook.

Shares of Roche gained 1.6% following a report the Swiss pharmaceutical company is considering divesting cancer data specialist Flatiron Health.

Corporate earnings took centre stage as investors moved past the risk-off sentiment emanating from fears of a U.S. recession that sparked a global selloff in equities earlier in the week.

"Risky assets were higher as positioning is cleaner and dip buyers started to emerge," Mohit Kumar, chief economist for Europe at Jefferies said.

In the absence of fresh catalysts, markets are consolidating as August is generally a month where relatively light trading volumes are observed.

"It's just a case where people don't want to take too many big moves in what is traditionally a weaker period for stocks," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.

"Earnings are taking over a bit now... there's not too many macro drivers and perhaps it's a good thing at the moment."

On the data front, German industrial orders rose by more than forecast in June, providing a glimmer of hope for Europe's largest economy.

The German benchmark index DAX ticked 0.8% higher.

Car parts maker Continental jumped 4.7% after it trounced expectations for second-quarter results.

Just Eat Takeaway soared 7.2% after J.P.Morgan upgraded the rating on the stock to "overweight" from "neutral".

Bucking the trend, German sportswear maker Puma lost nearly 13% after it narrowed its outlook for full-year core profit.

Later in the day, investors will closely monitor comments from European Central Bank member Olli Rehn and board member Elizabeth McCaul for clues on the central bank's next move.

Commerzbank, one of Germany's best-known banks, fell 5.5% after its second-quarter net profit dropped 5%.

Beiersdorf slipped 2.7% despite the Nivea maker reporting a 7.1% organic sales growth for the first half of the year.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mrigank Dhaniwala)