Dealmaking, Trump’s health update boost European stocks

(Reuters) – A spate of dealmaking activity lifted European stocks in early trade on Monday along with an upbeat global mood on positive updates of U.S. President Donald Trump’s health.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index <.stoxx> rose 0.7% by 0717 GMT, adding to a near-2% gain last week.

Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell , BP and Total gained nearly 2%, with crude prices climbing after an easing of the worst fears about Trump’s health condition and an expanding workers’ strike in Norway, Western Europe’s largest oil producer. [O/R]

Spanish bank Unicaja gained 6.0% after a source told Reuters that it and Liberbank were holding informal talks about a potential tie-up to create the country’s fifth-biggest lender.

German fertiliser group K+S jumped 13.5% after Bloomberg reported it was in advanced talks to sell its Morton Salt unit to Kissner Group for about $3 billion.

Dufry surged 12.2% after it revealed that China’s Alibaba planned to acquire a stake of up to 9.99% in the Swiss duty free group.

UK’s Weir Group Plc rose 17.7% to the top of STOXX 600 <.stoxx> as it had agreed to sell its oil and gas division to U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar for $405 million.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar; editing by Uttaresh.V)