UPDATE 2-European shares rise for second day on hopes of more U.S. stimulus

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* Healthcare stocks remain in focus
* Britain's SSE jumps as it keeps dividend
* PostNL jumps on raising FY outlook

(Adds comments, updates prices to close)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
June 17 (Reuters) - European shares rose for a second day on
Wednesday as expectations of more U.S. stimulus and hopes the
global economy can bounce back from an appalling April offset
fears of further lockdowns after a new COVID-19 outbreak in
China.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.7%, adding
to the previous session's strong gains on reports the Trump
administration was preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure
proposal. European equity markets have roared back since a
coronavirus-fuelled crash in March, aided by massive global
stimulus, with the STOXX 600 index now only 15.7% below its
February record high.
"It just speaks to evidence that a global recovery seems to
be at play, given that European equities seemed to have
underperformed U.S. equities recently," said Seema Shah, chief
strategist at Principal Global Investors in London.
"What everyone is hoping for is that you get a return to
growth which is driven by more confident consumer behaviour but
if you have another (virus) outbreak, even if there is no
lockdown, it starts to weigh on people's minds."
Focus will now turn to the European Council, which will meet
at the end of the week to discuss a recovery proposal by the
bloc's executive to raise 750 billion euros worth of debt to top
up spending from joint coffers to be worth 1.1 trillion euros in
2021-27.
Meanwhile, Beijing cancelled scores of domestic flights as
it attempted to contain the fresh coronavirus outbreak.
"A lockdown of Beijing would be a Wuhan on steroids, being a
government and commercial centre," said Jeffrey Halley, senior
market analyst at OANDA.
British renewable power generator and network operator SSE
Plc SSE.L jumped 9.1% to the top of STOXX 600 after it
confirmed its full-year dividend and posted a
better-than-expected annual pre-tax profit. Boohoo BOOH.L gained 6.6% after the online fashion group
forecast annual results ahead of market expectations on
increasing demand during lockdowns. Dutch postal and parcel services provider PostNL PTNL.AS
jumped 18% with its full-year normalised operating profit seen
"strongly" above previous guidance. Healthcare stocks .SXDP remained in focus after trial
results on Tuesday showed that a cheap and widely used steroid
called dexamethasone became the first drug shown to be able to
save the lives of COVID-19 patients. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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