Europe midday: Markets still cautious, but DAX outperforms

European shares edged ahead at midday with Germany's DAX outperforming, while shares in Swedish fashion giant H&M surged after profits smashed estimates.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.05% at 511.37, just off the record high set on Tuesday. The DAX was up 0.45% at 18,467, down slightly from the new record 18,478 set in the morning.

"Caution continues to reign after another day of decline on Wall Street. Many investors seem a little wary as New York indices hang near record levels, trade tensions between the US and China bubble and key data out on Friday threatens to show US inflation is still stubborn," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.

In economic news, Sweden's central bank held its key rate unchanged at 4.00% as expected and said that inflation pressures had now eased enough for the policy rate to be cut in the coming months.

Meanwhile, economic sentiment in the eurozone showed signs of improvement with a closely watched survey showing businesses were becoming more upbeat about future prospects.

The sentiment index increased to a three-month high of 96.3 in March 2024, marking an uptick from February's revised figure of 95.5.

"Just as the mood couldn’t get more downbeat about European competitiveness, the economy is starting to show more green shoots in terms of economic activity," said ING senior eurozone economist Bert Colijn.

"Of course, structural and cyclical factors are very different, but the current mood may be overstating Europe’s economic misery a bit. After a long period of economic stagnation following the energy crisis, the eurozone economy is expected to see growth pick up over the coming quarters.

In equity news H&M rose 13% after first-quarter operating profit rose more than expected to 2.08 billion krona.

Diploma surged 10% after announcing it had bought Peerless Aerospace Fastener, a distributor of specialty fasteners into the US and European aerospace markets for £236m.

Paper and packaging maker DS Smith also jumped after reports it was now the target in a bidding war between rival Mondi - with which it has an “agreement in principle” to merge with its fellow UK-listed peer - and International Paper of the US.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com