London - European shares surged in early trade on Monday, bouncing from Friday's slide, after Eurozone governments announced guarantee measures for banks and central banks moved to boost liquidity.
At 08:28 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 6.7% at 908.10 points after a 22% fall last week.
The index, which plunged to a 5-year low last week, has lost nearly 40% so far this year, punctured by a credit crisis that has led to big losses at the region's banks, frozen interbank lending and slowed the economy.
After an emergency meeting in Paris over the weekend, European governments agreed to provide capital for banks caught short of funds because of frozen money markets and to insure or buy into new debt issues.
Banks were the top weighted gainers, with BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, UBS, Dexia, Standard Chartered, Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank rising between 6.1% and 14%.
Credit Suisse gained 12% after Merrill Lynch upgraded it to "neutral" from "underperform", saying last week's 40% fall was overdone. Baer Holdings rose 12% after Deutsche Bank upgraded it to "hold" from "sell".
The world's top central banks on Monday announced further measures to improve liquidity in short-term US dollar funding markets.
European central banks said on Monday they would lend out as much US dollar liquidity as commercial banks needed in a further joint bid to resolve money market tensions.
In a joint announcement with the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank said they would meet all bids from commercial banks at a fixed interest rate.
"You'd expect a rally after the freefall last week," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist at NCB Stockbrokers.
"The 15 members of the eurozone agreeing guarantees and bank recapitalisation measures, that's positive, and there's talk of the US bringing guarantees into the toolbox. The patchwork quilt is filling out in terms of guarantees and other remedies."
The interbank cost of borrowing three-month sterling and euro funds eased on Monday.
UK banks package
Three major British banks could take £37bn in government money to boost their capital, the UK Treasury said. In Paris, a report by Dow Jones Newswires said the French government would create a €40bn fund to take stakes in banks.
The French presidential office declined to comment on the report.
A German financial rescue plan includes a fund to provide up to €400bn in guarantees for banks, according to a draft bill seen by Reuters on Monday.
The terms of Lloyds' acquisition of HBOS have been renegotiated. HBOS shareholders will now receive 0.605 Lloyds shares for each HBOS share, down from 0.83 previously.
HBOS shares fell 6.3%, while Lloyds was up 10.6%. Barclays, which said it was not taking government money but would raise cash from investors, gained 14%, and RBS was up 2.2%.
Oils also played a major part in boosting the index, after crude prices, which fell 10% on Friday, gained nearly $4. Oil was recently trading at $81.43 a barrel.
Total, ENI, BP and Royal Dutch Shell gained between 5.4% and 6.2%.
Mining shares also rebounded, as gold and copper prices regained some lost ground. Rio was up 13% and Anglo American, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata were up 8.9%-11%.
Dutch company Philips Electronics was down 1.3% after the company said it posted a 71% fall in third-quarter core profit as a charge for asbestos claims and restructuring costs impacted the group result.
It was one of just four fallers in the index.
NCB's McAlinden said a significant rally was unlikely.
"The other side is that we've got more Q3 earnings reports coming up, which may contain bad news, but it would take bad earnings news to justify the steep falls we've had," he said.
"The market has capitulated a few times already. We are reluctant to say this is the final capitulation. If this is the bottom, it will be a while before we know it. We won't be going up quickly."
- Reuters