European markets end flat in subdued trading

US stocks climbed back into record territory yesterday as rising oil prices boosted petroleum-linked equities while European markets were little changed.
London and Frankfurt saw small gains while Paris was nearly flat in the absence of major European data and with trading subdued on a national holiday in France and parts of Germany.
In London, the FTSE 100 up 0.4% at 6,941.19 points; Frankfurt — DAX 30 up 0.2% at 10,739.21 points and Paris — CAC 40 down 0.05% at 4,497.86 points at the close yesterday.
Investors are also waiting for the UK’s first official hard data since the Brexit vote, with statistics coming out later this week on inflation, unemployment and retail sales.
But on Wall Street all three indices were above record highs struck last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4% around mid-day in New York as the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced nearly 0.7%.
On the tech side Twitter shares jumped 6% on a New York Times report that it was in talks with Apple to bring its streaming of US NFL football games this fall to Apple TV.
Apple stock was up over 1%. Dow members Chevron and ExxonMobil gained as oil prices rose on speculation that producers in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would agree to limit output next month and ease the global supply glut.
In London, BP shares closed up 1%. In Asia most markets advanced yesterday but Tokyo dipped as official figures showed Japan’s economy stalled in the second quarter.
Data showed growth in the world’s third largest economy was flat at 0% quarter-on-quarter, missing predictions for a 0.2% expansion in the April-June period, on weak exports and lower business spending.
Japanese officials are under increasing pressure to deliver as economists are writing off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s years-long bid to cement a lasting recovery, dubbed Abenomics.
Tokyo recently announced a whopping ¥28tn ($276bn) package aimed at kickstarting growth.
“The recently announced fiscal and monetary stimulus measures were clearly insufficient to satiate the market’s appetite,” said London Capital Group analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
“The bulk of investors expect to hear more measures from the government and Bank of Japan (BoJ) to boost growth.
The problem is that neither the BoJ, nor Shinzo Abe’s government have much left in their pockets to satisfy the unappeasable hunger for free liquidity.”
Elsewhere in Asia, Sydney, Wellington and Kuala Lumpur also saw gains, even after poor economic data from the eurozone and the United States on Friday left stocks under pressure.
Chinese shares rallied on hopes the government would soon launch a scheme to link trading on the Shenzhen exchange with the Hong Kong bourse.
Hong Kong rose 0.7%, while Shanghai finished the day up 2.4% after the China Securities Regulatory Commission said on Friday that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme would be launched this year.
China launched a landmark “stock connect” between Shanghai and Hong Kong in late 2014, which allowed investors to trade selected stocks on Shanghai’s tightly restricted exchange and let mainland investors buy shares in Hong Kong.