European shares drift up as polls open

Europe's main stock markets drifted up in subdued trading on Thursday as the region began voting in parliamentary polls, as investors reacted to global economic data releases and company updates. London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies ended the day essentially flat at 6,820.56 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 30 tacked on 0.24 per cent to 9,720.91 points and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.21 pc to close at 4,478.21 points. In Spain, Madrid stocks dipped 0.10 pc and Italy’s Milan stocks dropped 1.21 pc. The prices of shares had won an early ‘boost out of China where a closely watched manufacturing PMI released by HSBC overnight showed a surprisingly strong rise indicating that the Chinese economy either has likely bottomed or is close to bottoming’, said Markus Huber, senior analyst at broker Peregrine & Black. But the ‘strong Chinese PMI overnight was offset by Europe’s own PMI’s missing expectations,’ said Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK. He said ‘a two speed Europe with Germany vs the rest has shown itself again,’ with France continuing to disappoint. In Britain, which is not a member of the eurozone but is part of the European Union, official data confirmed that the country’s economy rose by 0.8% in the first quarter. Britain and the Netherlands kicked-off Europe's mammoth parliamentary elections on Thursday in a vote that is expected to see a swing towards populist right-wing parties. The elections, which are spread over four days in the EU's 28 member states, are expected to produce major gains for parties bent on dismantling the European Union from the inside, according to AFP.