European shares rose slightly on Tuesday, holding near their highest levels since April as commodities-related stocks rallied, though a slump in France's Ingenico Group led Europe's tech sector lower.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.1 per cent, with the intra-day peaks in April proving to be a hurdle.
“Markets just need a bit more evidence that they should indeed be back to the races or ... be selling off and I think the US might give us a bit of a hand today,” Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said. U.S. markets were set to reopen after being shut for a holiday on Monday.
Underscoring investor skittishness and low tolerance for earnings disappointments, French payments firm Ingenico Group plummeted 12.5 per cent in heavy volumes, after cutting its full-year targets in the wake of a “sudden and significant decline” in US sales.
“Ingenico has adjusted its guidance for H2 2016 due to the rapid and temporary market decline in the US caused by the change in EMV rules, and persistently difficult conditions in Brazil,” Richard-Maxime Beaudoux, analyst at Bryan, Garnier & Co, said in a note.
Dutch fertilizer group OCI also dropped, down 7.2 per cent after reporting its first half results.
Among the risers, a 3.8 per cent rally in German medical company Fresenius SE helped offset losses, gaining after it said that it was buying Spain's biggest private hospital chain, Quironsalud, for 5.76 billion euros ($6.42 billion).
The rally in crude oil prices continued to underpin shares of major producers such as Total and Royal Dutch Shell , while Europe's Basic Resources sector was the top sectoral riser on the back of a rally in mining shares.