Europe midday: Stocks drift lower amid rising Covid-19 infections

Stocks on the Continent have turned lower but remain will off their lows of the session with investors apparently brushing off news of higher Covid-19 cases in the US, Germany and even China.

Instead, the focus appeared to be on whether strict lockdowns would be reimposed and for now that did not appear to be the case.

"The rise in the infection rate is unlikely to enhance confidence in the markets, but there might come a point where dealers become more accustomed to the situation, as a rise in new cases is the risk a government takes when it reopens their economy," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.

"There are clearly some concerns circulating, but they are nothing like the panic that was seen in February and March."

As of 1151 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.34% at 364.21, alongside a 0.35% drop for the German Dax to 12,287.34 while the FTSE Mibtel was down 0.52% to 19,517.83.

Indeed, according to the Sunday Telegraph, Downing Street, for one, was set to announce a further easing of lockdown measures in the UK the following day.

Also boosting sentiment, German finance minister, Olaf Scholz, predicted on Monday morning that the the legal standoff between the European Central Bank and the country's Constitutional Court would be resolved without drama - with Berlin likely to have the last word.

Against that backdrop, Retail and Autos&Parts were the best performing areas of the market, with their respective Stoxx 600 sector indices adding 0.63% and 0.64%, respectively.

Early gains for healthcare issues on the other hand had largely evaporated come midday.

Further weighing on sentiment, shares of German payments firm Wirecard continued to slowly implode on the back of its accounting scandal and after management pulled the company's full-year results for fiscal 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.

Lufthansa was another top faller as its largest shareholder continued to hold out against the terms of a government rescue deal.

Elsewhere on the economic front, CBS reported that its Dutch consumer confidence index extended its recent bounce in June, rising by four points to -27.0, versus an all-time low of -41.0 reached in March 2013.