EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Higher As Energy Shares Gain; Technip Climbs

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks rose Monday, as gains in energy shares aided the Stoxx Europe 600, which is coming off its worst week in more than three years.

The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.7% to 332.70, poised for its first rise in six sessions. The slide in oil prices to five-year lows and worries about slower global growth hit mining and energy shares particularly hard in recent days. The index last week fell 5.8%, the sharpest weekly pullback since September 2011.

But the resources sector was the best-performing on Monday. The oil and gas group was higher by 1.9%, in contrast to last week's slump of more than 9%.

Oil producer Afren PLC was up 7.8%, climbing to the top of the Stoxx 600. The stock last week tumbled nearly 25%. Tullow Oil PLC rose 5.9%, after last week's decline of more than 7%.

Technip SA also popped toward the top of the pan-European index, rising 7.1% after the French oil-services firm ditched plans to buy CGG , saying merger talks between the companies failed. CGG shares tumbled 29%, bringing their year-to-date decline to 61%.

Europe's key indexes moved higher in mid-morning trade following comments from European Central Ban Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny. Speaking at a news conference in Vienna, Nowotny said the risk of a collapse in the eurozone has been removed and that the ECB's efforts can only work if policy measures on the fiscal side are implemented, according to a Reuters report.

Decliners on the Stoxx Europe 600 included Danske Bank AS . Its shares dropped 1.2% after the Danish firm said it will write down about 9 billion kroner ($1.51 billion) in the value of assets related to activities in Finland, Estonia and Northern Ireland.

On the country indexes, Germany's DAX 30 rose 0.8% to 9,669.55, France's CAC 40 picked up 0.9% at 4,144.15 and the U.K's FTSE 100 tacked on 0.9% at 6,354.80.

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