FX.co ★ European Shares Slightly Higher As French Elections Deliver Hung Parliament

European stocks achieved modest gains on Monday following a noteworthy result in the French parliamentary elections, where a left-wing alliance garnered the most seats, effectively blocking the far-right factions. Despite this, no single political group secured a majority necessary to form a government, leading to political turmoil that weakened the president's authority and destabilized Europe's second-largest economy.

On the economic front, new data from Destatis revealed that Germany's exports experienced a decline in May for the first time in three months. This drop is attributed to decreased demand from both China and the United States. Specifically, exports fell by 3.6 percent on a monthly basis, following a 1.7 percent increase in April. Meanwhile, imports saw an even sharper decline of 6.6 percent, reversing a 1.2 percent rise from the previous month.

Investor confidence in the Eurozone deteriorated in July, as reflected by the corresponding index, which dropped from 0.3 to -7.3.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose by 0.3 percent to 518.02, recovering from a 0.2 percent decline on Friday. Concurrently, both Germany's DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 increased by around 0.3 percent, while France's CAC 40 gained 0.4 percent.

Notable movements in the market included Britvic, which surged 4.6 percent following the announcement that Danish brewer Carlsberg has agreed to acquire the British soft drinks manufacturer for £3.3 billion ($4.23 billion). Carlsberg's shares also benefited, rising 3.4 percent.

Marston's saw a significant jump of 16 percent after the pub and hotel operator sold its 40 percent stake in its brewing joint venture with Carlsberg.

Conversely, energy giants BP Plc and Shell saw declines of 1.3 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, as crude oil prices slipped after a four-week rise.

HgCapital Trust rose by approximately 1 percent following its agreement to sell its remaining investment in the business software company TeamSystem.

French banks showed strong performance, with BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, and Societe Generale advancing by 1 to 2 percent.

However, shares of Delivery Hero dropped sharply by 5.3 percent. The German online food delivery company announced it could face a fine exceeding 400 million euros from Brussels due to antitrust violations.