LONDON: European shares opened just slightly up on Thursday as investors waited to see whether Italy's political crisis would finally be resolved and fresh trade war fears weighed on German automakers.
Milan's bourse opened higher but nervousness about the ongoing negotiations was palpable with the FTSE MIB index making strong swings, falling up to 0.4 percent before rising back to 0.3 percent as shares in financials recovered.
Italy's banking index, which is down more than 5 percent so far this week, extended yesterday's gains with a 1 percent rise.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent by 0735 GMT but Germany's DAX was down 0.2 percent as car makers Volkswagen and Daimler lost 1.3 and 0.9 percent respectively after a report President Trump wanted to block German luxury cars from the U.S. market.
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