LONDON: Europe's main stock markets rose in lacklustre holiday trade on Monday, with Frankfurt's DAX closing above the symbolic 10,000 level for the first time.
"With a lack of economic data, European shares were soft today after the solid gains made last week in expectation of and as a result of ECB stimulus and the goldilocks US jobs report," said analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK.
"With Germany and France out for Whit Monday, volumes were particularly thin in what is already a period of unusually low volatility," he added.
Nevertheless the DAX 30 managed to pick up 0.21 percent to finish the day at 10,008.63 points.
London's FTSE 100 index of top companies tacked on 0.24 percent to 6,875 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.17 percent to reach its highest point since June 2008 at 4,589.12 points.
Milan rose 0.82 percent and Madrid 0.90 percent. "The context is favourable thanks to the monetary policies of central banks even if it is possible to have short-term consolidations," said Saxo Banque analyst Christopher Dembik.
"For the moment, the rise is self-supporting" with technical trade dominating, he added.
In a move hailed as "unprecedented" by analysts, the European Central Bank last week lowered rates across the board and pushed the rate at which it pays commercial banks for depositing their unused cash into negative territory for the time, cutting it from zero percent to minus 0.10 percent.
This means banks will be charged for depositing their excess cash with the ECB in a bid to encourage lending, and the central bank said it would also make up to 400 billion euros in cheap long-term funds available to eurozone lenders.
Official data Friday showed the US economy added 217,000 jobs in May, bringing the total number in the country above the level at the beginning of the deep 2008-2009 recession for the first time.
Markets also welcomed figures released Sunday that showed China's trade surplus surged to $35.92 billion as exports increased 7.0 percent year-on-year and imports declined 1.6 percent were also well received.
The mining sector won support on the back of that data, with shares in Antofagasta rising 1.1 percent to 781 pence and Fresnillo also picking up 1.1 percent to 784 pence.
Elsewhere, shares in Lloyds Banking Group slid 1.8 percent to 78.67 pence. State-rescued LBG on Monday proposed a pricing of 220-290 pence a share when it floats one quarter of its TSB bank division.
Wall Street continues rising:
US stocks headed higher on Monday after last week's records amid a fresh burst of merger and acquisition activity on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.23 percent to 16,963.75 points in midday trade.
The S&P 500 gained 0.25 percent to 1,954.31 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.57 percent to 4,346.01.
Tyson Foods, the world's second-largest meat processor, won the bidding war for sausage and hot dog maker Hillshire Foods against rival Pilgrim's Pride with an offer worth $8.6 billion.
Hillshire shares jumped 5.0 percent, while Tyson tumbled 5.0 percent and Pilgrim's dropped 5.8 percent.
Asian stock markets mostly rose on Monday, buoyed by another record close on Wall Street in response to an impressive US jobs report, the Chinese export figures and an upward revision of Japanese economic growth, traders said.
Tokyo rose 0.31 percent and Hong Kong gained 0.79 percent. Shanghai was flat, Seoul eased 0.27 percent, and Sydney was closed for a public holiday.
In foreign exchange trading on Monday, the European single currency eased to $1.3591 from $1.3641 late in New York on Friday.
The euro slipped to 80.91 British pence from 81.19 pence. The British pound edged down to $1.6797 from $1.6799 on Friday.
On the London Bullion Market, gold climbed to $1,253.50 an ounce on Monday from $1,247.50 Friday.
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