European Markets Close Mostly Higher

(RTTNews) - European markets ended mostly higher on Monday, with investors largely reacting positively to results of EU parliamentary elections.

Mainstream European Union parties held their ground in Sunday's election as populist and far-right parties in some countries failed to gather as much support as anticipated.

As the U.S. market was closed for Memorial Day, activity was somewhat subdued in most of the markets in Europe.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended up 0.22%. Among the major markets, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 moved up by 0.5% and 0.37%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI closed higher by 0.48%. The U.K. market was closed for Spring Bank Holiday.

Among other markets in Europe, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Switzerland closed on a firm note. Italy failed to hold early gains, weighed down by a report that Brussels is considering disciplinary action over Rome's failure to rein in public debt.

Auto stocks were in focus after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles submitted a 50/50 merger proposal to the Board of Groupe Renault.

Fiat Chrysler and Renault ended stronger by about 8% and 12%, respectively. Meanwhile, Peugeot ended lower by about 3.2%.

German automobile stocks Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW ended modestly higher.

Wirecard, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Covestro, Linde and Adidas were among the prominent gainers in the German market.

In European economic news, Finland's consumer confidence fell to minus 1.8 in May from minus 1.7 in April.

Denmark's retail sales were down for the first time in three months in April, falling 0.3% month-on-month, data from Statistics Denmark showed.

Meanwhile, trade concerns persisted, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening high tariffs for Japanese carmakers as part of efforts to reduce trade surpluses with other countries.