LONDON, Feb 6: European stock markets rose on Tuesday as investors digested a slew of company news and a mixed overnight performance on Wall Street, dealers said.

In early afternoon deals, London's FTSE 100 index of top shares won 0.44 per cent to 6,346.00 points, in Paris the CAC 40 added 0.23 per cent to 5,694.45 and Frankfurt's Dax 30 index increased by 0.29 per cent to 6,893.95.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip shares gained 0.42 per cent to 4,245.23 points. The euro stood at $1.2945.

Wall Street shares closed mixed on Monday as oil prices spiked amid a US cold snap, offsetting an upbeat economic report and merger announcements. Some traders also expressed concern, after the recent rash of fourth-quarter reports, that corporate earnings growth has slowed.

In Frankfurt, Fresenius Medical Care topped the risers leaderboard, surging 6.43 per cent to 110.30 euros on investor expectations that proposed changes to US Medicare regulations might increase company revenues, dealers said.

MAN shares gained 0.58 per cent to 83.78 euros after the German engineering conglomerate said bottom-line net profit surged by 96 per cent to 925 million euros (1.2 billion dollars) in 2006 from the previous year.

In Paris, Alcatel-Lucent shares jumped 0.91 per cent to 9.95 euros. The telecommunications equipment maker could soon announce plans to cut its workforce by 15,000 to 20,000 jobs, Expansion magazine reported on its website Tuesday, citing industry sources.

In London, meanwhile, British energy giant BP saw its shares sink 2.12 per cent to 530 pence.

BP said Tuesday that net profits dipped in 2006, reflecting a decline in production and refining margins, despite record peaks for crude oil prices in the middle of the year.

In US deals on Monday, the leading blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed up a scant 0.07 per cent at 12,661.74 points.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite dipped 0.21 per cent to 2,470.60 while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 finished down 0.10 percent at 1,446.99 points.—AFP