**As German, French Stocks Rise
By Investors Hub
European stocks turned mixed on Tuesday following the rally seen in the previous session.
The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, while the German DAX Index went up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index progressed by 0.2 percent.
With a strong working majority now confirmed in the National Assembly, market participants bet that French President Emmanuel Macron will forge ahead with pro-EU, business-friendly reforms in order to revive the economy and bring down the unemployment rate.
Investors were also reacting to dovish remarks from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. The pound hit a one-week low after Carney painted a bleak picture of the UK economy and said now is not the time to raise UK interest rates.
Swiss drug maker Novartis has moved higher after its eye drug RTH258 (brolucizumab) met the primary and key secondary endpoints in two Phase III studies.
Mediaset has also risen after the Italian broadcaster acquired an 11.1 percent stake in Mediaset Premium from Spain’s Telefonica for an undisclosed amount.
Dutch brewing giant Heineken rose ahead of the deadline to address concerns expressed by the competitions watchdog over its planned acquisition of Punch Taverns outlets.
On the other hand, Barclays is marginally lower after the Serious Fraud Office charged the British lender, its former chief executive and three other former top executives with fraud over their actions in the 2008 financial crisis.
In economic news, figures from Destatis revealed that German producer price inflation eased to a four-month low in May.
Producer prices advanced an annual 2.8 percent, slower than the 3.4 percent growth seen in April and the 2.9 percent increase economists had forecast.
Separately, a report from the European Central Bank showed that the euro zone current account surplus fell to 22.2 billion euros in April from 35.7 billion euros in March. This was the lowest since November of 2014.
Adedapo Adesanya