Europe midday: Stocks struggle for direction; German utilities soar but Rolls-Royce tumbles

European stocks were mixed in a tight range on Monday, struggling for direction in fairly quiet trade with no major economic data releases due.

At midday, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.2%, Germany’s DAX was 0.2% higher and France’s CAC 40 was 0.4% weaker.

“With US bond markets closed today due to Columbus Day it would appear that we could be seeing a little profit taking in Europe after last week’s strong rebound with trading expected to remain subdued ahead of a number of key data releases later this week and the first full week of US third-quarter earnings season,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

On the corporate front, Glencore shares edged lower after the commodities trader said it has begun the process to sell two of its copper mines in Australia and Chile.

Shares in engineering and defence group Rolls-Royce fell sharply as investors got their first chance to react to a press report that European airlines are being forced to enter anti-competitive contracts to keep their 24,000 aircraft flying.

The Financial Times said late on Friday that this comes as equipment makers seek a slice of the $60bn a year maintenance and repair market.

Standard Chartered was also under the cosh as Investec downgraded its stance on the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’, saying there is much clearer value elsewhere.

On the upside, shares in RWE and E.ON surged after Germany's economy ministry said the utility companies have enough funds to pay for the shutdown and clean-up of nuclear power plants as decommissioning moves a step closer.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles pushed higher after launching its initial public offering of Ferrari, in which it owns 90% of the shared issued and outstanding share capital.

Recruitment agency Hays was on the front foot after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’, saying the drop in the share price is overdone despite the slower growth outlook.

London-listed Brewer SABMiller reversed opening losses to trade higher. Over the weekend, press reports suggested that Anheuser-Busch InBev is likely to increase its offer the company to around £43-44 a share before the deadline on Wednesday.