By Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) - European shares ended flat on Monday at the beginning of a week packed with high-profile earnings, while shares of Dutch health technology company Philips jumped after strong first-quarter results.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed at 468.97 points, keeping to a narrow three-point range for most of the day.
"Monday's session seems to provide the template for most of the week – tentative gains that then slip away," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.
Philips NV jumped 13.8% after the company posted better-than-expected first-quarter results and said it had set aside 575 million euros ($631 million) related to lawsuits over its recall of respiratory devices.
Healthcare shares rose 0.1%, while technology shares fell 1.0%, giving back most of its gains from Friday.
Big banks Barclays (LON:BARC) Plc, Santander (BME:SAN), Deutsche Bank AG (ETR:DBKGn), UBS Group AG (SIX:UBSG) and consumer companies like Nestle SA (SIX:NESN), Reckitt and Unilever (LON:ULVR) Plc report results this week.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN), in what is likely to be its last time reporting results, said 61 billion Swiss francs ($68 billion) in assets left the bank in the first quarter and that outflows were continuing, as its state-engineered marriage with UBS is expected to be completed soon.
After a chaotic month in March, European shares have risen 2.4% so far in April, tracking their best monthly performance since January as cheap valuations and China's reopening bets is boosted firms.
Luxury group LVMH (EPA:LVMH) surpassed a market capitalization of $500 billion, making it the largest valuation on record for a European company and the first above the $500-billion mark.
"It (LVMH) might not escape unscathed if a recession does materialise, but as the 2020 and 2022 rebounds in its shares demonstrate, there is plenty of appetite for a stake in the ever-growing global luxury market," Beauchamp added.
Investors will also monitor results of some of the biggest U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) this week.
German business morale rose in April, adding to positive signs as Europe's largest economy hopes to have dodged a winter recession, according to a survey.
Shares of Software AG skyrocketed 49.0% after private equity firm Silver Lake offered to buy the German software developer.
UK's Medica Group also surged 33.8% after the telemedicine services company recommended a takeover offer from private equity firm IK Investment.
Sweden's Avanza dropped 9.4% as the financial services provider missed first-quarter profit expectations.