European stocks brush off Brexit court ruling

Most European stock markets edged out gains Tuesday as traders brushed aside a Brexit court ruling seen as making little difference to Britain's timetable for leaving the EU.

Meanwhile the pound slipped a bit after the UK Supreme Court's verdict that Britain's government must win parliament's approval before beginning formal Brexit negotiations.

The announcement "is unlikely to ultimately make a large difference and the balance of probabilities suggest that the self-imposed deadline will be met," said XTB analyst David Cheetham.

Indeed, the UK government said the court ruling would do "nothing" to change Prime Minister Theresa May's timetable of triggering Article 50 -- the formal procedure for leaving the EU -- by the end of March at the latest.

But the main opposition Labour party and the Scottish National Party (SNP) have said they will introduce amendments to any government legislation to start Brexit, which could potentially cause a delay.

"Sterling fell and then recovered some of the losses following the Supreme Court's ruling as the judges' decision casts a pall of uncertainty over the triggering of Article 50," said senior ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson.

"The moves need to be seen in the broader context of sterling's plunge since June, however. These are pretty minor adjustments and the pound is stuck in a range it's traded in since the start of October of between roughly $1.20 and $1.27," he added in a client note.

- EasyJet nosedives -

Analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: "It's been a fairly uninspiring day for European markets today, notable for a number of high profile profit warnings..."

Shares in EasyJet slumped nearly nine percent after the no-frills airline said it expects full-year profits to suffer a bigger-than-expected hit from a soft pound.

Sterling's weakness, which has seen it slump around 18 percent against the dollar and 14 percent versus the euro since June's referendum result, has been impacting companies' balance sheets both positively and negatively.

"The weakness of sterling is expected to impact EasyJet's year-on-year profit before tax for financial year 2017 by around £105 million ($131 million, 122 million euros)," the company said in a trading update, up from an estimate of about £90 million in November.

EasyJet's heavy exposure to the uncertain British economy and weak pound have seen investors shun the airline's shares, which slumped 42 percent last year, a drop much worse than its rivals.

But EasyJet's losses Tuesday were dwarfed by British telecoms and TV group BT, whose shares plunged twenty percent after the company warned that its profits would take a much larger hit than expected from accounting irregularities in Italy.

Those sharp losses helped push London's FTSE 100 index just into negative territory at the end of the day with a loss of less than one point.

Wall Street stocks showed modest gains in morning trading as earnings disappointments from Verizon, Lockheed Martin and others limited buying sentiment.

- Key figures at 1635 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.01 percent at 7,150.34 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.4 percent at 11,594.94 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 4,830.03 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 3,279.51

New York - Dow: UP 0.03 at 19,806.10

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 18,787.99 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,142.55 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.2 percent at 22,949.86 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0751 from $1.0761

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2509 from $1.2521

Dollar/yen: UP at 113.38 yen from 112.84 yen

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 61 cents at $53.36 per barrel

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 81 cents at $55.68