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* STOXX 600 logs best day in over a month
* Travel stocks retrace some of Friday's losses
* BT Group surges after Reliance takeover report
* Faurecia slumps after forecast cut
(Updates to close)
By Anisha Sircar and Susan Mathew
Nov 29 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Monday after
their worst selloff in more than a year as investors awaited
clues on whether the Omicron variant of coronavirus would hamper
economic recoveries and monetary tightening plans by central
banks.
The pan-European STOXX 600 ended up 0.7%, logging
its best day in a month and recovering some of Friday's 3.7%
slump triggered by concerns around the newly discovered variant.
While the variant was spotted in several countries across
the globe, a South African doctor, who was one of the first to
suspect a different strain, said that symptoms were so far mild
and could be treated at home.
Travel and leisure stocks rose, with Wizz Air
, Lufthansa, TUI Group and Ryanair
and Carnival all rising between 1% and 5.5%
after double-digit falls on Friday on fears of renewed travel
restrictions.
Financial stocks added 1.7%, while energy and basic material
stocks were also among the biggest boosts as prices of the
underlying commodities rose.
London's FTSE 100 jumped 0.9% with investors also
betting the Bank of England may be forced to rethink monetary
policy tightening next month.
"The emergence of the Omicron variant has now crystalised
fears that we're not out of the woods just yet... and led to a
shift in monetary policy expectations," said Laith Khalaf, head
of investment analysis at AJ Bell.
"The fact that markets have now alighted on February as the
likely month for a UK interest rate rise shows there is still
considerable optimism that Omicron is a stumbling block, rather
than a brick wall."
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank argued that the euro
zone's economy had learned to cope with successive waves of the
pandemic.
But increasing pressure on the central bank, German consumer
price inflation rose further in November to hit another record
high, data showed on Monday. The German DAX gained the
least among regional peers, up 0.2%
BT Group jumped 6.1% after a report that Indian
oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance was considering
an offer for the UK telecom firm. Reliance denied the report,
capping the stock's gains.
Faurecia dropped 7.9% drop after the car parts
group trimmed its full-year guidance, citing a drop in European
automotive production.
Despite clocking several record highs in November, the STOXX
600 is on course to post monthly losses of about 1.7% as a
strong earnings season and diminishing fears around tighter
monetary policy were outweighed by concerns around the new
variant and fresh restrictions in Europe.
(Reporting by Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun
Koyyur, Shinjini Ganguli and Keith Weir)
