LONDON (Reuters) - 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 U.S. government and progress towards an end to political deadlock in Germany.
At 0830 GMT the pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) index was flat (-0.02 percent). Germany's (GDAXI) DAX was up 0.04 percent, France's (FCHI) CAC-40 down 0.11 percent and the UK's FTSE (FTSE) unchanged.
French drugmaker Sanofi (PA:SASY) fell after the company announced a $11.6 billion takeover of U.S. haemophilia treatment specialist Bioverativ (O:BIVV), 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 (MI:YNAP) shares surged 25 percent, hitting a record after shareholder Richemont (S:CFR) moved to buy out the company.
Ocado (L:OCDO) jumped 13 percent after it signed an agreement with Sobeys
UBS (S:UBSG), Switzerland's biggest bank, saw its shares fall after posting a quarterly loss, driven by a large writedown on the U.S. 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 (L:WMH) and Ladbrokes (LON:LCL) down 14 percent and 13 percent 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 (DE:SNHG) rose over 11 percent 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.