European stocks inched higher yesterday after a four-day break as investors cheered Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera's deal to buy a stake in Turkcell and shrugged off mixed US consumer sentiment data.
Takeover talk was rife, with Rentokil up 3.3 per cent as news of a bid for Danish rival ISS fanned bid fever throughout the cleaning and service sector. Dutch bank ABN AMRO shed 1.4 per cent on continued speculation it might bid soon for Italy's Banca Antonveneta.
European exchange operators also stood out, with shares in the London Stock Exchange off 4.6 per cent as a decision by the UK's Office of Fair Trading to refer two rival proposals to buy the London bourse to the Competition Commission for an in-depth probe threatened to delay any takeover by six months.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips gained 0.25 per cent to 1,087.9 points. The narrower DJ Euro STOXX 50 added 0.26 per cent to 3,068.5 points.
A report showing US consumer confidence had ebbed by slightly more than expected in March, as higher gasoline prices dampened the mood of car-reliant Americans, seemed to have little impact on market sentiment. Investors were already looking ahead to the publication of the non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.
"Right now the market is focused on two things: the Fed(eral Reserve)'s tightening cycle and labour market data. That's probably why there has been a lack of reaction to the confidence data," said Kathy Lien, a strategist at Forex Capital Markets in New York.
"What's going to shift sentiment is anything possibly showing whether the Fed is going to hike by 50 basis points or not."
Shares in TeliaSonera rallied 5.3 per cent after the telecoms company agreed on Good Friday to pay $3.1 billion in cash for a 27 percent stake in Turkish mobile phone operator Turkcell, raising its stake to about 64 per cent.
Traders said the deal would enhance earnings and that the price looked reasonable.
Also on the corporate activity front, Denmark's ISS surged 30 per cent after two venture capital groups made a $3.8 billion bid for the services firm.
France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas, stepped in to resolve a "war of widows" dividing the controlling families at luxury store chain Galeries Lafayette, backing a three-billion euro deal to take it private.
Galeries Lafayette shares were suspended.
Elsewhere, BP also helped feed market gains, adding one per cent despite crude prices down to $54 a barrel, as the oil major said last week's deadly blast at its giant Texas City refinery had cut no more than five per cent of gasoline production at the 470,000-barrel-per-day plant.
Among the losers, shares in Ahold fell 1.1 per cent after the Dutch food retailer reported fourth-quarter operating earnings below analysts' expectations.