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Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year old centrist and a former Rothschild banker, won the French presidential election yesterday and will start in his new role within a week. That he won against Marine Le Pen, who stands for protectionism and leaving the European Union, and his business friendly economic reforms and will for deeper European integration have raised much hope and expectations in the financial markets.

However, his clout remains uncertain until the legislative elections in June and the new National Assembly is in place in July, as these will be crucial for determining his ability to implement his economic program, which includes labour market reforms that would make it easier for French businesses to hire and fire.

Following the election results, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, said it is positive on European shares and sees potential for renewed investor inflows as focus returns to the region's improving growth.

"European purchasing managers' indexes point to the strongest economic activity in six years," the BlackRock Investment Institute says in a white paper released today. "Europe stands to benefit from global reflation, and we see attractive valuations in cyclical shares."

The asset manager adds it is underweight European fixed income, and says the reg......................

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