Europe midday: French stocks make small rally after election result

European stocks made gains in the latter part of Monday's morning session, with French rallying as investors digested Sunday's election result that saw President Emmanuel Macron lose control of the country’s parliament.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.59% after a bruising week. US markets will be closed for a public holiday.

France's CAC 40 was up 0.28 after Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition failed to win a majority in the face of opposition from left-wing parties.

"Investors sense there is trouble ahead for the world economy, given that the priority of the powerful US Federal Reserve is to stamp out the flames of inflation even if that means extinguishing growth," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.

"Although US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday a recession is not at all inevitable, she cautioned that the economy would slow, indicating that the price spiral will take time to reverse, given that inflation’s causes were global."

Uncertainty about the global outlook weighed on miners and commodity traders, with Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore all lower.

On the downside, housebuilders slumped after the latest survey from Rightmove indicated that house prices were likely to start falling in the next five months. Barratt, Berkeley, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey were all weaker.

French carmaker Renault topped the Stoxx after Jefferies upgraded the stock to "buy".

Shares in building materials company Kingspan slumped after the company said the mood in most of its end markets had deteriorated over the last two months, with order intake volume "significantly" lower year-on-year.

Budget airline easyJet fell after announcing more flight cuts as the UK’s travel chaos showed no signs of abating.