European Stocks Pare Early Gains, Turning In Mixed Performance

(RTTNews) - After a firm start, European stocks are turning in a mixed performance on Monday as the mood has turned somewhat cautious with investors awaiting more earnings and economic updates from the U.S. for more clarity about the state of the world's largest economy.

Dovish comments from Bank of Japan's Governor and the People's Bank of China, and optimism about Chinese economy lifted sentiment early on in the session, but some of the major markets have retreated after scaling fresh multi-month and multi-year highs.

The Chinese economy is expected to have grown 4% in the first quarter versus 2.9% earlier. Industrial production in March is seen rising to 4% from 2.4% in the previous period.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100, which climbed to 7,916.67, is up 18.20 points or 0.23% at 7,890.11. France's CAC 40, which hit a fresh high at 7,552.00, has dropped to 7,512.91, down 6.70 points or about 0.1% from the previous close. Germany's DAX is down 10.95 points or 0.07% at 15,796.55, well off an early high of 15,903.25.

The pan European Stoxx 600 is roughly flat at 467.14, easing from an early high of 468.95.

In the UK market, Royal Mail is up 5%. EasyJet is climbing 4% and IAG is up by 2.3%.

Just Eat Takeaway.com, BP, Coca-Cola, RightMove, DS Smith, Compass Group, Rio Tinto, Smurfit Kappa Group, Tesco, BT Group, Informa and Vodafone are gaining 1.3 to 2%.

Melrose Industries is declining 2.5%. Barclays, Prudential, Schrodders, HSBC Holdings and Natwest Group are also down with notable losses.

In the German market, RWE, MTU Aero Engines, Merck, Brenntag, Sartorius and Henkel are gaining 1 to 1.6%.

CommerzBank, Deutsche Bank, Munich RE, Hannover Rueck, Fresenius Medical Care, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Siemens Energy are down 1 to 2%.

In Paris, WorldLine is gaining about 3.4%. Publicis Groupe, Safran, Teleperformance, Endie and TotalEnergies are up 1 to 1.5%.

Renault is down 1.4%. The company, which reported a 9% surge in sales in the first quarter, announced that it is reviewing its pricing policies of electric cars worldwide after Tesla cut prices to boost demand.

Capgemini, Societe Generale, LVMH, Essilor, BNP Paribas and AXA are down 1 to 4%.