February 03, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 14, 1428

LONDON, Feb 2: Leading European stock markets climbed on Friday after a record overnight session on Wall Street, with German power producer E.ON soaring after Gas Natural of Spain pulled away from its bid for Endesa.

London's FTSE 100 index of top shares rose 0.55 per cent to 6,316.50 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index added 0.22 per cent to 6,866.14 and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.33 per cent to 5,681.14 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip shares increased 0.23 per cent to 4,220.88 points. The euro stood at 1.3019 dollars. Wall Street pushed to new highs Thursday as the market extended its rally a day after a reassuring outlook on the US economy from the US Federal Reserve.

The market action came after a positive reaction to Wednesday's statement by the Federal Open Market Committee, which said US economic growth was picking up and inflation easing.

In Frankfurt, shares in E.ON, Germany's largest power producer, surged 3.22 per cent to 109 euros, after the announcement that Spanish rival Gas Natural was dropping out of the race to buy Spanish electricity company Endesa.

With Gas Natural's decision to pull out, E.ON was now the only company in the running to take over Endesa and create a new European energy champion.

In Madrid, Endesa shares showed a slight gain of 0.13 per cent at 38.46 euros.

In London, J Sainsbury saw its shares rocket 14.8 per cent to 511.25 pence after private equity groups revealed their interest in the third-biggest biggest supermarket chain in Britain.

Private equity groups CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone said they were mulling a Sainsbury takeover, but a spokesman for the supermarket group declined to comment.

In Thursday's US deals, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.41 per cent to 12,673.68, breaking the record closing high set last week of 12,621.77.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite increased 0.18 per cent to 2,468.38 and the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 1,445.94. Both indexes were at multi-year highs.

In Asia on Friday, they said the market posted its best finish for almost 10 months but gains were capped by caution ahead of monthly US jobs data due out later Friday and another slew of corporate earnings reports.—Reuters