By Sruthi Shankar and Shreyashi Sanyal (Reuters) -European stocks gained in choppy trading on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve’s widely anticipated U.S. interest rate hike, as investors eyed Russia-Ukraine peace talks. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.5%, paring March losses spurred by the Ukraine conflict. Investors took in stride the long-expected start of a U.S. monetary tightening. The Fed increased rates by a quarter percentage point, as expected, and telegraphed equivalent hikes at every meeting for the rest of the year. “It is not totally unexpected what the Fed said in …