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European stocks rise in early deals:Posted By: Tom Braswell LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets climbed in early trade on takeover news, gains for heavyweight mining stocks and a rebound by Wall Street overnight.London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares gained 0.79 percent to 6,006.40 points on Thursday, matching levels last seen five years ago. Frankfurt's DAX 30 won 0.69 percent to 5,955.52 points and in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.67 percent to 5,215.18 points. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares increased by 0.63 percent to 3,850.33 points. The euro stood at 1.2055 dollars. US stocks had rallied on Wednesday, propelling a key tech index to a multiyear high as the market shrugged off jitters about the Federal Reserve and interest rates that prompted a sharp selloff a day earlier, dealers said. On Thursday, Japanese share prices smashed through 17,000 points for the first time in more than five years amid rising optimism about the economic outlook. On London's FTSE 100, Kazakhmys surged 7.71 percent to 1,027 pence after the copper miner posted a sharp increase in its full-year earnings. Kazakhmys posted 2005 net earnings of 549.8 million dollars (455.6 million euros), up 46.2 percent during 2004. The Kazakh group helped drag higher its rivals, with BHP Billiton up 2.49 percent to 1,048.5 pence and Xstrata rising 2.16 percent to 1,843 pence. Elsewhere, the Alliance and Leicester bank jumped 4.45 percent to 1,243 pence after being linked with a possible takeover by either French peer Credit Agricole or Spanish company Banco Santander Central Hispano, dealers said. Credit Agricole gained 0.62 percent to 32.24 euros in Paris, while in Madrid Banco Santander soared 6.59 percent to 12.04 euros. Spain's IBEX 35 index climbed 0.38 percent to 11,862.30 points. Back in London on the second tier FTSE 250 index, Associated British Ports, the biggest port operator in Britain, rose 1.12 percent to 725 pence after rejecting a takeover proposal worth 2.23 billion pounds (3.21 billion euros, 3.88 billion dollars). AB Ports had said late on Wednesday that it had rejected as "wholly inadequate" an indicative approach of 730 pence per share from a consortium that includes the Singapore government, US investment bank Goldman Sachs and a Canadian pension fund. The price of shares in the London Stock Exchange, which trades also on the FTSE 250, slumped by 8.04 percent to 1.030 pence after the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange said it had dropped its bid for the LSE, Europe's biggest equities market. In its statement early on Thursday, Nasdaq said that it "no longer intends to make an offer for the LSE". However, the exchange said it reserved the right to make a renewed offer. The LSE had rejected on March 10 a preliminary bid worth 950 pence-per-share from the Nasdaq, which valued its British rival at about 2.42 billion pounds. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.55 percent to close at 11,215.70 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq meanwhile leapt 1.45 percent to 2,337.78 points, the best close in more than five years. The Standard and Poor's 500 index added 0.75 percent to 1,302.89. On Thursday in Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 0.63 percent to close at 17,045.34 points, a level last seen in August 2000. Hong Kong's key Hang Seng Index finished up 0.86 percent at 15,880.69 points. Courtesy Of: Yahoo! News The information reported above is property of Yahoo! inc. and reprinted or modified with legitimate permission. We thank Yahoo! inc. for the kind cooperation with us and other shareholders. |
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