- European stocks closed lower Tuesday as investors weighed up political uncertainty in France after Sunday's election.
- "It's a wait and see trade, and the market's told you that," Bryn Jones, head of fixed income at Rathbones, told CNBC.
- BP fell 4% after the oil major said in a trading statement it expected a second-quarter earnings hit.
LONDON — European stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors in the region weighed up political uncertainty in France after Sunday's election result.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index provisionally ended the day down 0.99%. Retail stocks led losses, down 1.65%.
BP fell over 4% after the oil major said in a trading statement it expected to post an impairment of up to $2 billion in the second quarter and warned of lower refining margins weighing on its results.
Meanwhile, shares in Novo Nordisk — which makes the obesity drug Wegovy — fell 1.89% after analysis by the JAMA Internal Medicine journal indicated that Eli Lilly's rival treatment led to greater weight loss.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped into the red in afternoon deals, after bucking the wider negative trend through the morning. It follows last week's emphatic victory for the left-of-center Labour Party, seen as broadly supportive of U.K. assets and sectors including house builders in particular.
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The Paris CAC 40 index, meanwhile, ended the day 1.81% lower as traders continued to assess the implications of a hung parliament and a potential prolonged period of political uncertainty in France.
Money Report
The left-wing New Popular Front won the largest number of seats in the final round of voting, scuppering an expected surge for the far-right. The alliance failed to secure an absolute majority, however, meaning a coalition or technocratic government is on the cards, making legislation and reforms harder to pass.
Credit markets have returned French risk pricing roughly halfway back to pre-election levels, according to Bryn Jones, head of fixed income at Rathbones.
"It's a wait and see trade, and the market's told you that ... its spread is completely in the middle from the worst it got to, to the best it's been in the last few weeks," Jones told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe."
Overnight, Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 hit a fresh record high as investors digested key testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
