European shares bounce after volatile week

Oil stocks helped drive a rebound in European stocks on Monday after sharp losses late last week when fears about the Omicron variant and the U.S. monetary policy outlook weighed on investor sentiment.

The pan-European STOXX 600 edged up 0.7 per cent as of 0818 GMT, with the energy sector climbing 1.4 per cent. Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel after top exporter Saudi Arabia hiked prices for crude sold to Asia and the United States.

Helping allay some concerns over Omicron, a South African health official said over the weekend that the variant caused mild infections, while top U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci told CNN "it does not look like there's a great degree of severity" so far.


Among stocks, French construction materials company Saint-Gobain rose 1 per cent after announcing it was acquiring all shares in U.S.-based GCP Applied Technologies in a deal valued at around $2.3 billion.

Just Eat Takeaway.com slipped 3.3 per cent after Bernstein downgraded the stock to "market perform, while Deutsche Bank added 2.9 per cent after J.P.Morgan upgraded the stock to "overweight".