The main European stock markets were in the red at the start of trading on Friday, with Paris under pressure amid political uncertainty in France that has pushed up the yield spread between French and German 10-year bonds.

In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 1.05% to 7,626.96 points at around 07:09 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax was down 0.23%, and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.08%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index was down by 0.43%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.12% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.14%.

Markets closed a difficult week for equities, marked by the fallout from the results of the European elections, particularly in France, and by the European Commission's decision to impose additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, raising fears of retaliation and a trade war.

In France, political concerns over early parliamentary elections continue to weigh on equities and are putting pressure on the yield spread between the French 10-year bond and the German bund of the same maturity.

This is a measure of the risk premium investors demand for holding French government bonds.

The yield on the 10-year OAT was 3.174%, up 5 basis points on the week, while the spread was over 73 basis points.

On the value side, Atos , which announced on Friday that it had received a letter of offer from the French government for the acquisition of 100% of the Advanced Computing, Mission-Critical Systems and Cybersecurity Products activities of its BDS cybersecurity division, is up 16%. (Written by Diana Mandiá)