European shares flat after mixed corporate results

Reuters

Published Jul 17, 2019 03:25AM ET

Updated Jul 17, 2019 05:21AM ET

(Reuters) - European shares were flat in early trading on Wednesday as investors parsed through a mixed bag of corporate results, with rising Brexit uncertainty and trade tensions limiting the gains.

The banking sector (SX7P) fell 0.8%, led by Swedish banks, as Handelsbanken (ST:SHBa) fell on poor results, while Swedbank (ST:SWEDa) slipped after cutting its shareholder pay-out policy.

The tech sector (SX8P) outperformed the broader market after ASML (AS:ASML) reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

The sector rose was up 0.6%, also helped by gains in mobile network gear maker Ericsson (ST:ERICb), which said it was on-track for 2020 targets as second-quarter profit matched.

The pan-European stocks benchmark (STOXX) slipped 0.07% at 0711 GMT, in what could be its first day of decline in four days.