The UK’s FTSE 100 edged higher on Monday while French shares rallied, as parliamentary elections in the UK and France are dominating the agenda for European investors this week.
The top share index in Paris, the Cac 40, was up by as much as 2.8% during the day as traders reacted to the first round of polling in France.
Alex Everett, an investment manager for Abrdn, said markets will likely “breathe a sigh of relief” after exit polls showed the far-right National Rally party took the lead but may fall short of an absolute majority.
“With the tail risk of a left majority seemingly avoided, this allays the market’s worst fears of untrammelled spending,” he added.
Mr Everett said the country’s leftist alliance party and centrist group will likely try to strike deals to “derail” the possibility of the National Rally taking an outright majority.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said European markets were enjoying a “relief rally” but there is “plenty of nervousness about the outlook for France and the French economy.”
The French Cac 40 closed 1.09% higher, while Germany’s Dax climbed 0.47%.
The UK’s FTSE 100 just about closed higher after losing grip on gains from earlier in the day. It was up 2.64 points, or 0.03%, to 8,166.76.
Over in the US, the S&P 500 was flat and Dow Jones edged up 0.1% by the time European markets closed.
The pound was down about 0.1% against the US dollar at 1.264, and roughly flat against the euro at 1.179.
In company news, shares in shipbuilder Harland & Wolff have been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange after the firm failed to publish its annual results on time.
The Aim-listed company said the “multi-year and complex nature” of some of its contracts meant it was in talks with its auditors over how to account for revenues.
The suspension is expected to be lifted once the group publishes its results, which it is aiming to do next week.
Porvair saw its shares dip on Monday after the specialist filtration technology group revealed its pre-tax profit dipped by 6% over the six months to the end of May, compared with the prior year.
The company said it was not unusual for its trading to be inconsistent, as it operates in several markets around the world and can be affected by local or global events. Its share price closed 2.7% lower.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Glencore, up 10.6p to 461.7p, Standard Chartered, up 16.2p to 732.2p, Phoenix Group, up 11p to 532.5p, Barclays, up 4.3p to 213.2p, and Land Securities, up 10.5p to 630p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were BAE Systems, down 48p to 1,272p, Beazley, down 21.5p to 686.5p, Anglo American, down 69.5p to 2,432.5p, 3i Group, down 80p to 2,986p, and easyJet, down 8.4p to 449.3p.