Europe midday: Shares listless as Monday rally loses momentum
European shares were listless on Tuesday after sharp gains in the previous session on the back of economic recovery hopes and the long-awaited US stimulus package.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.07%, after Monday’s 1.3% rise. Regional bourses were mixed with the UK FTSE 100 outperforming, up 0.15% as the country’s health service met its first Covid vaccination target of elderly people.
Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC were both flat after revised data showing the euro area economy shrank slightly less than feared at the end of 2020.
According to European Union statistics agency Eurostat, the single currency bloc's gross domestic product contracted 0.6% in the final three months of 2020 on a seasonally adjusted basis, better than the preliminary reading of -0.7% and followed a rebound of 12.4% over the three months to September and a 11.7% drop in the second quarter.
With the US market closed on Monday for the President’s Day holiday investors were also watching progress on President Joe Biden’s $1.9trn economic rescue plan.
In equity news Glencore jumped 3.63% after reinstating its dividend, while BHP Group rose as the world’s largest listed miner posted its best first-half profit in seven years and declared a record interim dividend.
Travel company TUI and airline easyJet also rose, boosted by hopes that vaccines will allow a return to more normal life by spring.
Shares in Norway's Adevinta fell 4.68% after UK regulators said its planned $9.2bn (£6.5bn) deal to buy eBay’s Gumtree unit could reduce consumer choice and raise prices in the online classified advertising sector.