BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The European markets ended Monday's session with mixed results, but finished little changed overall. The markets were stuck in a sideways trend throughout the first session of the new trading week, in rather lackluster trading action. Rising commodity prices provided a boost to shares of mining and energy stocks, while shares of bank stocks were under pressure.
Investors were rattled slightly by a significant political shake-up in Saudi Arabia that analysts are calling a purge in favor of the Crown Prince Mohamma bin Salman.
Billionaire investor Prince al-Waleed bin Talal was arrested and faces money laundering charges. Also this weekend, a helicopter carrying another prince mysteriously crashed and a ballistic missile from Yemen directed at Saudi Arabia was said to be intercepted.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index advanced 0.18 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased 0.21 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 0.19 percent.
The DAX of Germany dropped 0.07 percent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.19 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.03 percent, but the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.36 percent.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Telekom declined 2.62 percent after merger talks between Sprint and T-Mobile have ceased.
QSC rallied 7.10 percent. The telecommunications provider backed its FY17 outlook after posting turnaround results for the third quarter.
In Paris, hotel group Accor rose 0.02 percent after its third biggest shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was arrested in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night as part of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.
In London, SysGroup plunged 12.20 percent. After reporting weak first-half earnings, the managed IT services and cloud hosting provider has warned that it expects fiscal year EBITDA and adjusted profit before tax to be significantly below market expectations.
Tullow Oil rose 1.73 percent as oil prices hit their highest levels since 2015 amid signs of tightening market conditions.
Rio Tinto rallied 1.30 percent after the mining giant elevated another leader to its executive committee.
SBM Offshore plunged 13.79 percent in Amsterdam, after the marine energy group set aside an additional $238 million provision to settle a corruption case.
Storage tank firm Royal Vopak sank 6.06 percent in Vienna after lowering its 2017 earnings guidance.
Eurozone investor confidence reached its highest level in more than ten years in November, survey results from think tank Sentix showed Monday. The investor sentiment index climbed more-than-expected to 34.0 in November from 29.7 in October. This was the highest since July 2007 and the expected score was 31.0.
Eurozone producer price inflation accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace in September, data from Eurostat showed Monday. Producer prices climbed 2.9 percent year-over-year in September, following a 2.5 percent increase in August. Economists had expected the inflation to rise to 2.8 percent.
The euro area private sector started the final quarter on a strong footing but the pace of expansion slowed since September, final data from IHS Markit showed Monday. The composite output index fell to 56.0 in October from 56.7 in September. But the reading was slightly above the flash estimate of 55.9 and also the indicator signaled expansion in each of the past 52 months.
Germany's factory orders increased unexpectedly in September driven by foreign demand, while domestic orders remained weak.
Factory orders grew 1 percent month-on-month in September, but slower than August's revised 4.1 percent increase, data from Destatis revealed Monday. This was the second consecutive rise and came in contrast to the expected decrease of 1.1 percent.
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