FTSE 100 up 0.25%; DAX up 0.44%; CAC 40 up 0.24% (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milan, 08 Jul - European shares were slightly higher in cautious midday trade, with the Stoxx 600 index up 0.41%.

Investors remained on the sidelines amid prospects of a hung parliament in France after a surprise win for the country's leftwing coalition, the New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire).

The bloc won the second round of the general election held yesterday, thwarting an expected surge of the far-right, and is expected to have between 177 and 198 deputies in the lower house of parliament, the news agency AFP reported citing the polling agencies Ifop and Ipsos.

The New Popular Front however failed to secure an absolute majority.

President Emmanuel Macron's coalition obtained 152 to 169 deputies, 80 to 100 less than in the previous legislature.

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) is credited with 135-145 deputies, up from 89 previously, and the right wing party, the Republicans, is estimated to have won 63 to 68 seats.

The National Rally underwhelmed after scoring historic gains in the first round of the parliamentary election on June 30 with 33.1% of the vote.

The turnout yesterday reached 67%, the highest since 1997.

Based on the current estimates no bloc has reached 289 seats to have a majority on its own in the house of deputies.

Prime minister Gabriel Attal said that he would offer his resignation to Macron today, after Jean-Luc Melenchon, the head of France Unbowed, an extreme left party member of the New Popular Front coalition, said that Attal "has to leave" and the coalition has to rule.

Members of the Macron coalition have indicated that they are ready to rule with other political parties, excluding the National Rally and France Unbowed, AFP reported.

The New Popular Front has pledged big spending increases, sparking concerns over clashes with the EU as the country already struggles with high budget deficit, recently prompting the EU to recommend disciplinary steps.

The French election results come after a general election in the UK last week that saw the opposition Labour Party win a landslide victory as expected, ending 14 years in power for the Conservative Party.

On the data front, investor confidence in the eurozone worsened to -7.3 in July from 0.3 the earlier month, dropping sharply after improving for eight consecutive months, according to the German think tank Sentix.

Economic expectations for the eurozone fell to 1.5 from 10.0 while the assessment of the current situation worsened to -15.8 from -9.0.

At 1135 GMT, the London FTSE 100 was up 0.25% at 8,224 points, the Frankfurt DAX was up 0.44% at 18,543 points, the Paris CAC 40 up 0.24% at 7,694 points, while in Milan the FTSE MIB was up 0.75% at 34,241 points, and in Madrid the IBEX 35 was up 0.59% at 11,088 points.

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(RADIOCOR) 08-07-24 13:41:47 (0361) 5 NNNN