(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)

Dec 8 (Reuters) - European stocks inched higher on Wednesday after marking their strongest two-day gain in more than a year, with defensive stocks rising as investors weighed the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the Omicron coronavirus variant.

After jumping 3.8% over the past two days, the region-wide STOXX 600 index .STOXX nudged 0.1% higher in early deals.

Germany's BioNTech BNTX.O 22UAy.F , which makes COVID-19 vaccines with Pfizer PFE.N , fell 6.3% after a study showed that the Omicron variant can partially evade protection from two doses of their COVID-19 vaccine.

Sectors considered more stable during times of uncertainty such as healthcare .SXDP and food & beverages .SX3P were the top gainers.

L'Oreal OREP.PA rose 1.1% after consumer giant Nestle NESN.S said it would cut its stake in the French cosmetics brand by selling shares worth 8.9 billion euros ($10 billion) to about 20%.

Shares in Nestle rose 1.6% to trade just short of record highs.

Travel shares .SXTP fell as tour operator TUI's UK-listed shares TUIGn.DE TUIT.L slumped 5.4% after it posted an annual loss of over 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion).

German meal-kit company Hellofresh HFGG.DE slid 8.3% after an underwhelming outlook for 2022 earnings.

Chipmakers Infineon Technologies IFXGn.DE dropped 2.9% and STMicroelectronics STM.PA slipped 1.3% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stocks to "equal-weight".
Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V