Retail stocks shot to the top of the performance charts as sector consolidation talk surged to a fresh pitch on the news that French supermarket giants, Carrefour and Promodes, planned to merge.
German leader Metro surged €1.16 to €52.95 in Frankfurt and in Madrid supermarket chains Superdiplo and Enaco rose 93 cents to €20.09 and two cents to €7.97. Milan's Rinascente added 17 cents at €7.41 while in Brussels Delhaise rose €2.95 to €79.95.
Paris ended a low-volume session in positive territory thanks mostly to the strength of the retail sector. The CAC 40 index closed 14.73 better at 4,657.44. Bank shares, buoyed by the six-month takeover tussle between BNP and Societe Generale and Paribas, were weak following the weekend ruling by the industry regulator that BNP could not take up its minority stake in SocGen.
