By Julien Ponthus
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 0918 GMT the pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat (-0.02 percent). Germany's DAX was down 0.1 percent, France's CAC-40 was 0.2 percent lower and the UK's FTSE was up 0.1.
French drugmaker Sanofi (PA:SASY) fell 3.4 percent after the company announced a $11.6 billion takeover of U.S. 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 (MI:YNAP) Net-a-Porter's shares surged 25 percent, hitting a record after shareholder Richemont moved to buy out the company.
Still in Italy, Mediaset was up about 5 percent with traders citing an upgrade to "Buy" from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS).
Ocado (LON:OCDO) jumped 13 percent 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 2.5 percent after reporting 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 program.
UK betting groups were the worst performers on the STOXX 600, with William Hill 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 ($2.8).
South African retailer Steinhoff 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 as it scrambles to plug a liquidity gap.
British drugmaker Indivior jumped 6.3 percent after a competitor for its Sublocade drug suffered a setback in the United States.
"It bodes well for Indivior and improves its positioning with the upcoming launch of Sublocade," broker Jefferies said in a note.
The energy sector was the main contributor to the STOXX 600, with Total and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) rising 1 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.
Telcos were also up slightly, spurred by Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn) which gained 1.3 percent after its CFO flagged rising dividends.
($1 = 0.7194 pounds)