European markets rise led by French stocks as traders digest election results

European stocks started the new trading week with gains as regional investors embraced the results of the first round of extraordinary parliamentary elections in France.

Europe's Stoxx 600 index was up 0.34 percent by 4 p.m. London time, recovering from four consecutive losses. This was helped by a sharp rise in France's CAC 40 index, which first jumped more than 2.5% before slipping to 1.23%.

European markets are reacting to the results of the first round of extraordinary parliamentary elections in France, which showed a sharp rise in votes for the anti-immigrant National Rally party.

Early results show it will fight for an outright majority in the second round of voting to be held on July 7, but analysts say it will be the "least bad" result from a market perspective. French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance came in third place on Sunday.

On the data front, German inflation fell in five key states in June and the EU's national consumer price index fell to 2.5 percent from 2.8 percent in May. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 2.6%.

This came ahead of the release of euro zone inflation data on Tuesday.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region had a mixed start to the second half of the year as investors assessed June business activity data in China as well as business confidence data in Japan.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures rose in overnight trading on Sunday as Wall Street looks ahead to the second half of 2024 after a strong finish to the first half of the trading year.