BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks held steady on Tuesday to hover near their highest level since the start of February as investors awaited the details of a possible coalition government in Italy and a government report showed the U.K. budget deficit narrowed in April to its lowest level since 2008.
Investors also remained focused on the testimony of the Bank of England governor Mark Carney to the House of Commons' Treasury Select Committee on the latest quarterly inflation report.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was marginally higher at 396 in late opening deals after rising 0.3 percent the previous day.
The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index were little changed in cautious trade while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent.
Credit Agricole shares jumped 3 percent after the lender won a court ruling in a case against the tax authorities.
Glencore gained about 1 percent. The miner and commodity trader is close to a $1 billion deal to buy Chevron Corp.'s southern African assets, potentially scuppering an earlier agreement with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Bloomberg reported citing three people familiar with the matter.
Automakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen were up around 1 percent each in Frankfurt after a Bloomberg report that China will cut import duty on passenger cars to 15 percent.
Evotec soared 8 percent. The German firm and Celgene Corp have entered into a long-term strategic drug discovery and development partnership to identify new therapeutics in oncology.
Inmarsat plunged more than 12 percent after its monopoly on providing an internationally required set of communication systems for ships ended.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX