Construction materials among worst hit sectors
French banks muted after Sunday39;s election
Renault jumps after Jefferies upgrade

June 20 Reuters European stocks edged higher on Monday after a sharp selloff last week on recession worries, while French shares lagged its peers after President Emmanuel Macron lost an absolute majority in the country39;s parliamentary election.

The panEuropean STOXX 600 index rose 0.4, with battered banking, travel and retail stocks leading the gains. A U.S. holiday also likely made for choppy trading.

The benchmark shed 4.6 last week in a global selloff that was fuelled by worries about aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks sparking a recession.

France39;s bluechip CAC 40 rose 0.1, lagging other major regional indexes, after Macron39;s centrist Ensemble coalition secured the most seats in the National Assembly over the weekend but fell well short of securing an absolute majority needed to control parliament. 

The country39;s major banks, including Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, all slipped in morning trade.

It will mean that there will probably be less structural reforms but we39;re already underweight Europe and it does not significantly change our stance, said Willem Sels, global chief investment officer, Private Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC.

The STOXX 600 has shed almost 17 this year so far, as a cocktail of worries from soaring inflation to China39;s…