INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
LONDON: A multi-billion pound merger between British supermarket Sainsbury's and ASDA shook up retail stocks on Monday while European
benchmarks rose, on track to end the month of April with a gain.
The pan-European STOXX index rose 0.1 per cent while Germany's DAX gained
0.3 per cent, buoyed by investors' improved risk appetite as tensions between North and South Korea eased, and companies delivered strong
earnings figures.
In Europe all eyes were on Sainsbury's, whose shares shot up 20 per cent at the open after the retailer agreed a 13.3
billion pound merger with Walmart's ASDA.
Tesco, whose position as UK leader in terms of market share would be overtaken by the new merged
group, tumbled 2.5 per cent on the news, weighing retail stocks down.
Morrisons and Marks Spencer also fell 0.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent
France's Carrefour however gained 0.4 per cent, while Casino rose 0.9 per cent.
In other deal news, Deutsche Telekom shares rose 1.5 per
cent to the top of the DAX after the German firm clinched a $26 billion deal to merge T-Mobile US and Sprint.
In results-driven moves, the
world's biggest advertising group WPP surged up 9 per cent after reporting forecast-beating sales in its first results without founder
Martin Sorrell.
The agency's gains boosted the pan-European media sector up 1 per cent
Financials stocks, the most sensitive to investors' risk appetite, were the biggest driver of the STOXX.
