LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets started the week on an upbeat note after Wall Street reached a three-year high.
The London FTSE 100 gained 0.36 percent to 4,808.30 points in early trading Monday, while the Frankfurt DAX 30 rose 0.36 percent to 4,158,24 points and the Paris CAC 40 added 0.27 percent to 3,845.60 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares rose 0.34 percent to 2,917.33 points.
The euro stood at 1.2957 dollars.
Dealers cheered a strong performance in New York on Friday, when shares rallied as a rise in US retail sales, solid earnings from Dell and fresh falls in oil prices boosted sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.66 percent to 10,539.01 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.17 percent to 2,085.34, as both indexes hit their highest levels since April.
The broad-market Standard and Poor`s 500 index advanced 0.91 percent to 1,184.17 points, the highest level since before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The positive mood spread across the major Asian markets, with the Tokyo Nikkei-225 index ending up 1.88 percent at 11,227.57 points Monday.
In Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed with a gain of 1.07 percent to 13,932.22 points.
There was little corporate news in Europe.
Shares in Italian bank Banca Nazionale de Lavoro lost 1.40 percent to 1.76 euros in Milan after the group said its board had approved a capital hike, widely expected by the market, aimed at raising 1.1 billion euros (1.42 billion dollars) to fund its commercial relaunch.
The capital increase, a seven-for-12 rights issue for ordinary and savings shareholders, was expected to be carried out by the end of this year and already had shareholder approval from a decision in April, it said.
European steelmaker Arcelor said that net profit in the third quarter surged by more than sixfold and forecast a strong fourth quarter amid `healthy` growth in the global steel market, driven by Chinese demand.
The group said net profit soared to 629 million euros (817 million dollars) from 101 million euros 12 months earlier, beating analysts` forecasts in a range of 461-600 million euros.
The price of shares in the group won 0.37 percent to 16.16 euros in Paris.

11/15/2004 - 11:17 GMT - AFP