Markets welcome Macron's victory, but stocks down on anticipated election outcome

Financial markets welcomed the victory of pro-business French president-elect Emmanuel Macron in early trading on Monday but stocks turned to red as investors had widely expected the election result.

At midday, the French CAC 40 index lost 0.82 percent and was down to 5,388 points after it had opened the trading session on a positive note. The French benchmark index had gained 7.4 percent between the election's two rounds.

In London, the index was slightly up by 0.06 percent, while stocks in Frankfurt fell by 0.32 percent. As for EuroStoxx 50, the European index was down by 0.57 percent.

From highs triggered by Macron's win, and his pro-European Union (EU) and market vision, the euro pulled back on Monday against the dollar to 1.0924.

The European currency hit a six-month high against the dollar at 1.1024 after projections on Sunday showed the ex-economy minister was leading the run-off vote to become the new and youngest president of France.

"Unlike the first round, there was not much suspense for this second round of elections and the market had already largely anticipated the victory of Emmanuel Macron," said Jean-Jacques Friedman, director of investments at management company Vega IM.

"Markets will now focus more on the economic performance of companies," he told the business daily Les Echos. Endit