LONDON: European shares traded with little clear direction on Monday as markets focused on a flurry of M&A, with limited impact from the shutdown of the US government and progress towards an end to political deadlock in Germany.At 0830 GMT the pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat (-0.02 per cent). Germany's DAX was up 0.04 per cent, France's CAC-40 down 0.11 per cent and the UK's FTSE unchanged.French drugmaker Sanofi fell after the company announced a $11.6 billion takeover of US haemophilia treatment specialist Bioverativ, with some traders saying the deal looked expensive.Kepler Cheuvreux analysts said the deal raised a "host of questions" and wondered whether Bioverativ's pipeline could offset pressure from a rival Roche treatment.Italian online luxury retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter's shares surged 25 per cent, hitting a record after shareholder Richemont moved to buy out the company.Ocado jumped 13 per cent after it signed an agreement with Sobeys to develop the online grocery business at Canada's second-largest food retailer.UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, saw its shares fall after posting a quarterly loss, driven by a large writedown on the US tax reforms. UBS still boosted its dividends and announced a new share buyback programme.UK betting groups were the worst performers on the STOXX 600, with William Hill and Ladbrokes down 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, on a report that the government is set to cap maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting machines at 2 pounds.South African retailer Steinhoff rose over 11 per cent after it said it planned to sell about 7.5 billion rand ($620 million) of shares in investment firm PSG Group it scrambles to plug a liquidity gap.

Source: Economic Times January 22, 2018 10:18 UTC