European Shares Flat To Higher In Lackluster Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks were flat to slightly higher on Monday after falling sharply last week on concerns that a new government in France may worsen the country's fiscal situation and threaten the stability of the euro zone.

French government bonds won some respite after Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-right, said she would co-operate with President Emmanuel Macron if she wins the snap parliamentary election that begins later this month.

Also, European Central Bank policymakers reportedly said they had no plans to launch emergency purchases of French bonds to stabilize the market.

The pan European STOXX 600 was marginally lower at 510.99 after registering its worst weekly percentage fall so far this year.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both edged up 0.2 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was little changed with a positive bias ahead of a key U.K. inflation reading and the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England, due later this week.

The euro held around more than one-month lows amid France's political turmoil. Treasury yields ticked higher as investors pondered the timeline of interest-rate cuts.

In corporate news, Dutch insurer ING rose more than 2 percent after it forecast total income growth of between 4 percent and 5 percent per year during 2024-2027.

Denmark's Topdanmark soared 21 percent as Finnish insurer Sampo agreed to buy its rival for 33 billion Danish crowns ($4.73 billion) in an all-share deal.

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG plunged 9 percent. The German firm announced a reduction in its revenues forecast for the fiscal 2023-24 and a 3 percent decline in adjusted revenue for the first eight months of the fiscal 2023-2024 compared to the prior year.

Ascential shares jumped 2 percent in London. The company focused on exhibitions, festivals, and information services, confirmed that full-year trading is in line with its expectations.

China-linked Hermes, LVMH and Kering were moving lower in Paris after a slew of Chinese economic data underlined the country's bumpy recovery and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) left a key policy rate unchanged, disappointing some who had expected a rate cut following surprisingly soft bank lending data.

In economic releases, survey data from property market website Rightmove showed asking prices for British homes coming to the market were flat this month.

Separately, the Make UK Q2 Manufacturing Outlook Survey revealed that output and orders at the U.K.'s manufacturers have picked up in Q2 ahead of the forthcoming election.