LONDON: Europe's main stock markets rallied Monday behind a strong rebound by Tokyo amid optimism for easing geopolitical concerns in Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index added 1.0 percent to stand at 6,632.82 points when trading came to a close.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 jumped 1.90 percent to 9,180.74 and in Paris the CAC 40 index advanced 1.20 percent to stand at 4,197.7 points compared with Friday's close.
The Tokyo market had surged 2.38 percent earlier in the day, making up most of the losses incurred on Friday after US President Barack Obama announced that he had authorised air strikes in Iraq.
In morning trades on Monday in New York, US stocks followed European and Asian equity markets higher amid perceptions of easing geopolitical tensions.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.30 percent to 16,603.78 points. The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.46 percent to 1,940.40, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.56 percent at 4,395.37.
"It appears that for many, the extent and speed with which stock prices have been falling in the past few weeks has been somewhat overdone," said Markus Huber, senior analyst at broker Peregrine & Black.
Frankfurt's DAX index dropped below the psychologically important 9,000-points level last week for the first time since March, and Tokyo shares had tumbled to a two-month low.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro declined to $1.3386 from $1.3416 late in New York on Friday.
The European single currency dropped to 79.74 pence from 79.95 pence on Friday. The pound rose to $1.6786 from $1.6776.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold declined to $1,307.25 an ounce from $1,309.75 on Friday.
EDF shares drop:
One stock that did not benefit from the trend higher was French energy giant EDF, which slipped 0.13 percent to 23.78 euros.
Its British unit EDF Energy decided to shut down four nuclear reactors at two plants in northern England as a precautionary measure.
A defect discovered at one of the reactors has kept it out of action since June. The decision to shut down the other three was described as a "conservative decision" in a statement issued by EDF Energy.
In a separate statement, British energy group Centrica said the shutdowns announced on Monday would impact its own earnings this year owing to its 20 percent interest in EDF Energy's existing nuclear operations. Its share price was stable at 307.8 pence however.
In Frankfurt, Volkswagen was up 1.81 percent to 168.5 pence after its luxury car brand Audi agreed to accept a penalty from Chinese authorities for breaching anti-monopoly laws in the world's largest car market.
An investigation by Chinese authorities found that an Audi dealer network had "violated national anti-monopoly laws", the brand's China arm said in a statement, adding the Audi joint venture involved had "closely cooperated with the investigation and will accept a penalty".
In Paris, the AMF financial market authority said that a friendly bid by IT consultancy Atos for computer company Bull had succeeded.
The offer, valuing Bull at 620 million euros, marks the end of a crisis-ridden chapter for Bull, the last French computer-maker. In 1963, Bull was the second-biggest computer company in the world, and the biggest in Europe.
Atos wants to make the new entity a leader in the fields of cloud computing, cyber security and big data.
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