European stocks rose on Monday as merger and acquisition speculation boosted a number of companies, including Nokia, while strong earnings propelled shares of Standard Chartered, Reuters reported. U.S. light crude prices hit a record peak near $64 after a string of refinery outages, lifting heavyweight oil stocks on expectations that soaring prices would continue feeding bumper profits. BP closed up 1.7 percent, and Italy's ENI rose 1.5 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips closed 0.6 percent higher at 1,181.3 points, just eight points short of last week's three-year peak. "There are broadening signs that the world economy is re-accelerating and inflation is more or less under control, so the outlook for stocks has been improving," said Trevor Greetham, an asset allocation strategist at Merrill Lynch, while cautioning that markets look increasingly overbought. "We are happy to be long global equities relative to bonds on fundamental grounds, but we would feel uncomfortable about aggressive buying into such a frothy market." The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.4 percent to 3,292.4 points, in thin volumes.
