European News -Market Share

FRANKFURT - European shares gained by midday on Monday, with energy stocks leading the bounce, after U.S. stocks rallied late on Friday and a rescue plan for banking giant Citigroup buoyed investor sentiment.At 1236 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 3.5 percent at 787.21 points. The index lost 12 percent last week to close at its lowest in more than five years and has lost 47.8 percent this year, hurt by the credit crisis and the prospect of recession."The initial driver today is the Citigroup rescue plan," said Giuseppe-Guido Amato, investment analyst at Lang & Schwarz, adding that the reports that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his point person to combat the U.S. economic crisis is also instilling confidence in the markets.U.S. stocks stormed higher in a late rally on Friday after NBC news reported that Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, would be nominated as U.S. Treasury secretary."Geithner is good for sentiment, because he would be a Treasury secretary coming from the banking business ... he knows what the problems are, and they are tremendous."Energy stocks added the most points to the benchmark index, as crude oil rose back above $50 a barrel, rising 3.8 percent. Total, ENI, BP and Royal Dutch Shell all rose between 5.9 percent and 7.4 percent."Commodity prices have been coming down recently, and commodity stocks have been reaching low levels from which they are currently bouncing back," said Darren Winder, strategist at Cazenove.Miners were also up. Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. Kazakhmys, Vedanta Resources and Xstrata rose 6.9 percent to 13 percent.Cazenove's Winder said the stock markets' move upwards on Monday was unlikely to prompt a sustained rally, given the ongoing credit crisis and weak economic outlook."The markets are bumping along the bottom at the moment ... we are stabilising but with high levels of volatility, continuing to see daily movements of 3 to 4 percent," he said.European stocks shrugged off a leading Ifo survey, which showed that German corporate sentiment fell sharply in November to its lowest level in 16 years.European financials rallied, with Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds and UBS up between 7.2 percent and 10 percent.Barclays was also boosted by news that investors have voted in favour of its 7 billion pound ($10.44 billion) fundraising. Bank of Ireland was up 16.4 percent after press reports that an Irish-led consortium of private investment firms is seeking to buy into the company, and possibly Irish Life & Permanent.But UK-based lender Standard Chartered was 6.2 percent lower after announcing a 1.8 billion pounds rights issue that it said would strengthen its balance sheet and give it the flexibility to take advantage of opportunities in the current turbulent markets.Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 were up between 3.2 percent and 4.5 percent.