LONDON, Feb 20: European stock markets mostly fell on Monday in early deals following losses on Wall Street on Friday before a long holiday weekend in the US. However, shares in Britain were propped up by takeover talk, while the energy sector was lifted by a spike in oil prices.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares won 0.12 per cent to 5,853.20 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 30 slid 0.16 per cent to 5,786.32 points and in Paris the CAC 40 lost 0.36 per cent to 4,981.78 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares fell by 0.22 per cent to 3,759.35 points.

The euro stood at $1.1946.

US stocks had finished lower Friday as a hotter-than-expected report on wholesale inflation and a disappointing outlook from computer maker Dell prompted profit taking after a three-day rally.

Wall Street was closed Monday for the Presidents’ Day public holiday.

Japanese share prices closed down 1.75 per cent on Monday to hit a four-week low on concerns that foreign investors are losing interest in the market after sharp gains, dealers said.

In European trading on Monday, oil companies were boosted by a spike in oil prices owing to heightened tensions in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter.

On Saturday, heavily armed separatist guerrillas carried out a series of attacks on Shell’s Forcados oil terminal, blowing up two pipelines, setting fire to a tanker loading platform and seizing expatriate staff.

Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell saw its ‘B’ shares rise 0.96 per cent to 1,891 pence.

Peer BP meanwhile added 1.60 per cent to 666 pence.

In Paris trading, French oil giant Total gained 1.06 per cent to 218.4 euros.

Britain’s BOC Group saw its share price race ahead after a report over the weekend that German engineering conglomerate Linde would raise its takeover bid for the industrial gas maker.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper had claimed that Linde would announce an agreed bid this week valuing BOC Group at 8.1 billion pounds (11.8 billion euros, 14.1 billion dollars).

In London trading, BOC shares jumped 1.95 per cent to 1,518 pence.—AFP