LONDON, June 2: European stocks rose on Friday, recovering part of recent losses as investors seized on news that the New York Stock Exchange Group was to acquire the pan-European stock market Euronext.
The $10-billion (7.8-billion-euro) cash and stock deal, announced overnight in New York, will create the first trans-Atlantic securities market — to be named NYSE Euronext — and placed pressure on rival exchanges to consolidate, dealers said.
In Friday’s early European trading in Paris the CAC 40 index surged 1.25 percent to 5,009.09 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose 1.00 percent to 5,764.41 points and London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares added 0.68 percent to 5,788.80 points
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares won 0.94 percent to 3,682.64 points.
In Paris trading, NYSE Group’s decision to acquire Euronext sent the share price of its European rival rocketing by as much as 3.7 per cent to 70.75 euros.
It later stood at 70.4 euros, an increase of 2.18 per cent from Thursday’s close.
NYSE Group reached a definitive agreement to merge with Euronext, lifting the shares of the pan-European bourse operator, analysts at the Sucden brokerage said.
The merge puts more pressure on its rival European exchanges to look more seriously for partners.
The 214-year-old NYSE trumped a competing bid by Deutsche Boerse, the German operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange, to acquire Paris-based Euronext, which operates bourses in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon.
In Frankfurt trading, Deutsche Boerse shares rose 0.17 per cent to 106.70 euros.
Nasdaq has built up a 25.1-percent stake in the London Stock Exchange in recent months.
However, in London trading on Friday, the LSE dipped 0.62 per cent to 1,115 pence.
Meanwhile, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) saw its share price make solid gains on Friday, a day after surging almost 5.0 per cent following the flotation of Bank of China.
