* STOXX 600 index closes 0.7% higher
* Sainsbury's top gainer in STOXX 600 on bid talk
* Euro zone business activity steady in August
* Cembra plunges to bottom of STOXX 600
(Updates to market close)
By Sruthi Shankar and Ambar Warrick
Aug 23 (Reuters) - European stocks recovered from their
biggest weekly loss in nearly six months on Monday, helped by
mining and oil stocks as commodity prices bounced back from
steep losses driven by uncertainty over U.S. monetary policy and
rising COVID-19 cases.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.7% higher
after losing nearly 1.5% last week. Oil and mining
were the best performing sectors, rising about 2.1% and
1.5% respectively.
Sentiment appeared to have improved after growing
uncertainty over when the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin
tightening policy, which sparked a broad selloff across global
markets last week.
Focus now turns to the Fed's annual Jackson Hole Economic
Policy Symposium beginning later in the week.
"With the Jackson Hole meeting beginning on Thursday,
investors may be reluctant to make big new commitments in the
next couple of sessions," Ian Williams, economics & strategy
research analyst at Peel Hunt, said.
Data in Europe suggested that business activity remained
strong in August, albeit at a slightly slower growth pace than
the two-decade peak seen in July.
With a nearly 18% rise so far this year, the STOXX 600 hit a
record high earlier this month, but has stumbled recently on
concerns over the Delta variant of COVID-19 stalling economic
growth.
Among individual stocks, Britain's second-largest grocer
Sainsbury's jumped 15.4% and was the best performer on
the STOXX 600, following a report that private equity firms were
circling the company with a view of possibly launching bids of
more than 7 billion pounds ($9.5 billion).
Last week, smaller rival Morrisons backed a 7
billion pounds offer from U.S. private equity group Clayton,
Dubilier & Rice.
Germany's BioNTech surged 7.6% after the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the
Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Luxury stocks including LVMH, Kering and
Moncler clawed back some of last week's losses after
being sold off on China's wealth redistribution plans.
Switzerland-based Cembra Money Bank plunged 30.9%
to the bottom of the STOXX 600 after it terminated its credit
card partnership with Swiss retailer Migros.
French lottery operator La Francaise des Jeux fell
1.7% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "sell".
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Holmes)
