European stocks closed slightly lower on Monday after pro-European Union candidate Emmanuel Macron secured a comfortable victory to become the next president of France.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.13 percent lower with sectors and major bourses mixed.
Basic resources (STOXX:.SXPP) slid more than 1 percent after weak iron ore imports data from China. The world's top steelmaking nation reduced its record-setting buying spree to its slowest pace in six months in April. Mining giants BHP Billiton (London Stock Exchange: BLT-GB), Rio Tinto (London Stock Exchange: RIO-GB) and Anglo American (London Stock Exchange: AAL-GB) all dropped more than 1.4 percent.
"Given that Macron's election win was fully expected by markets, early price movements show a small degree of profit taking," Darren Ruane, head of fixed interest at Investec Wealth & Investment said in a note.
The European banking index slipped 0.6 percent after initially trading higher at the open. France-based lenders appeared to extend the sector's losses as investors had already priced in a Macron victory on the back of opinion polls. All of the French banks were in negative territory on Monday though Societe Generale (Euronext Paris: GLE-FR) was the worst performer as its shares contracted more than 2.5 percent.
"European bank equities are down... but it is important to remember that they rallied strongly following the first round of the Presidential election. In fact, towards the end of last week, Societe Generale's share price was trading at its highest level since Q1 2011," Jaisal Pastakia, investment manager at Heartwood Investment Management, told CNBC in a note.
Shares of Dutch mail and parcel delivery firm Postnl plummeted to hit the bottom of the European benchmark after posting earnings for the first three months of the year. The Amsterdam-based company reported that its addressed mail volume had declined by 9.6 percent for the first quarter. Its shares were down almost 6 percent.
In the United States, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite notched new all-time highs on Monday despite a narrow trading range as investors digested Macron's victory.
War on drugs
The governing U.K. Conservative party is poised to publish its manifesto for the June 8 general election on Monday. The start of the trading week marks the two-year anniversary since the party last won the general election in 2015.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing on alleged Russian interference in last year's presidential election on Monday. Elsewhere, the United Nations' Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva on Monday to review the so-called war on drugs effort from Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
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