London's FTSE 100 down 0.04%, Milan's FTSE MIB up 0.59% (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milan , 19 Aug - European share prices were mostly higher at mid-session as investors looked ahead to a speech from US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell scheduled for Friday for indications on the central bank's interest rate policy.

At 1050 GMT, London's FTSE 100 was down 0.04% at 8,308.10 points while in Frankfurt the DAX was up 0.12% at 18,350.65 points and in Paris the CAC 40 advanced 0.33% to 7,474.63 points. Milan's FTSE MIB index was up 0.59% at 33,237.00 points while in Madrid the IBEX 35 jumped 1.01% to 11,060.55 points.

Shares of defence stocks came under pressure following a report in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) over the weekend that the German government could halt new military aid to Ukraine.

In Frankfurt trade, German defence group Rheinmetall was up 0.15% at 551.00 euros after falling as much as 5% in earlier trade. In Milan, shares of Italian defence and aerospace group Leonardo slipped 0.93% to 22.41 euros.

AAA-Hob

(RADIOCOR) 19-08-24 13:04:51 (0214) 5 NNNN