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Monday July 16, 4:33 PMEuropean stocks extend gains on buoyant banksPARIS, July 16 (Reuters) - European shares rose in early trade on Monday, climbing for a third successive session, with banks among top gainers after a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland revised its offer for Dutch bank ABN AMRO .ABN gained 4.1 percent, while Barclays , which has also made an offer for the Dutch financial group, rose 1.7 percent. The RBS consortium kept its offer for ABN at 38.4 euros per share, but raised the cash component to 93 percent from about 70 percent before. "M&A activity is far from over, and it's buoyant in every sector," said Jean-Francois Virolle, chief strategist at Global Equities, in Paris. "So far, rising interest rates have had a limited impact, and it could take a while before we see the recent frenzy slowing down." At 0802 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.35 percent, at 1,633.09. The benchmark index, up 10 percent so far this year, closed at a six-year-and-a-half high of 1,627.30 on Friday. Monday's rise in European shares followed a rally on Wall Street on Friday, where the S&P 500 index reached a record high after data showed improving consumer sentiment and General Electric Co. boosted a stock buyback plan. But a weak U.S. dollar versus the euro kept a downward pressure on European exporters. The dollar held near record lows against the euro on Monday. "On the positive side, we have record highs on Wall Street, but on the negative side, we have the currency moving upward," said Achim Matzke, European stock indexes analyst at Commerbank. "We might see some profit-taking on currency-sensitive shares because the European market is in danger that the dollar becomes even weaker." Among automakers, DaimlerChrysler was down 0.4 percent, while Fiat lost 0.7 percent. Around Europe, Germany's DAX index gained 0.3 percent, UK's FTSE 100 index rose 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 added 0.1 percent. On the downside, Lonmin , the world's third-biggest platinum producer, fell nearly 10 percent to top the FTSEurofirst 300 index losers after saying its full-year production of platinum concentrate would be between 920,000 and 940,000 saleable ounces and it was experiencing poor recoveries at its concentrators. Rio Tinto , which last week agreed to buy Canadian aluminium producer Alcan for $38.1 billion, fell 0.6 percent after Citigroup downgraded its rating on the stock to "hold" from "buy". BHP Billiton dropped 1.1 percent after the Financial Times said the world's biggest miner had asked Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan to weigh up the merits of it making a bid for Alcoa after the U.S. aluminium producer withdrew its bid for Alcan last week. Wolseley , the world's largest distributor of plumbing and heating products and building materials, lost 2.6 percent after it said group profit before tax and exceptional items fell around 5 percent for the 11 months to end-June and warned that the tough U.S. housing market showed no signs of recovery. Swedish fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz gained 1 percent after reporting a 17 percent rise in June sales from a year earlier, with a rise in same-store sales easing investors' worries after a weak May figure. |
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