MILAN: European shares hit their highest level in more than two years in early trading on Monday as confidence over global growth continued to boost investor appetite for global stocks.
A buoyant auto sector, fresh dealmaking activity and a better-than-expected update from chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor also buoyed sentiment, lifting the STOXX 600 index up as much as 0.4 per cent to levels last seen in August 2015.
The pan-European pared some of the opening gains and was up 0.1 per cent by 0826 GMT. Germany's DAX added 0.2 per cent, while Britain's FTSE inched down 0.1 per cent.
The European auto index led sectoral gainers, up 0.8 per cent to its highest since May 2015, extending last week's gains on upbeat prospects for the sector this year.
Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler rose 2.2 per cent followed by France's Peugeot and Germany's BMW , up 1.6 and 1.4 per cent respectively.
On the M&A front, Novo Nordisk inched up slightly after the Danish drugmaker said it had made a 2.6 billion euros bid for Belgian biotech group Ablynx.
Dialog Semiconductor, recently hit by investor fears it could lose its top customer Apple, rose 3.5 per cent. The chipmaker reported preliminary sales of $463 million for the fourth quarter, above the upper end of its outlook range announced in November.
Micro Focus however plummeted 10.5 per cent, leading losers on the STOXX following its half year results.
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