Europe's main stock markets held steady at the start of trading on Thursday ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend.
London's FTSE 100 index added 0.05 percent to 6,814.80 points and the CAC 40 in Paris won 0.12 percent to 5,068.06, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 slid 0.08 percent to 11,991.62 points compared with Wednesday's close.
The region's markets had charged upwards Wednesday in a positive start to the second quarter on the back of upbeat manufacturing data in China and the eurozone.