March 20, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 30, 1428

LONDON, March 19: Europe's main stock markets travelled higher in on Monday, boosted by news of a planned merger of German tourism giant TUI and smaller British rival First Choice.

European equities rose also following a recovery across global markets, which had suffered a rout last week on fears of an economic meltdown in the United States.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies climbed 0.54 per cent to 6,164.00 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.88 per cent to 6,637.97 points and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.66 per cent to 5,418.12.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip shares increased 0.90 per cent to 4,020.59 points. The euro stood at 1.3291 dollars.German travel giant TUI moved Monday to cement its position as Europe's leading travel and tourism group by announcing plans to merge it tourism division with First Choice.

The merger represents further consolidation of the European tourism industry, with the announcement coming one month after package holiday specialists Thomas Cook and MyTravel confirmed they were to carry out their own German-British tie-up.

TUI Travel, meanwhile, would have about 27 million customers per year and proforma revenues of 12.1 billion pounds (17.6 billion euros, 23.4 billion dollars), TUI and First Choice said.

In Frankfurt, TUI's share price rocketed 10.2 per cent to 18.20 euros.

On London's second-tier FTSE 250 index, First Choice soared 9.68 per cent to 311.5 pence.

The banking sector was also in focus after weekend press reports said British bank Barclays has approached Dutch investment bank ABN Amro with a merger proposal to create a global banking titan worth 80 billion pounds.

In Amsterdam, ABN Amro surged 7.29 per cent to 29.28 euros, while Barclays was up 0.59 per cent at 686.5 pence in London.

Broker Keefe, Bruyette and Woods said an approach by Barclays “is realistic”, but added that the situation was a long way from a potential deal.

Barclays said it would release a statement regarding the speculation before the opening of stock market trade on Tuesday.

The major US share indexes ended lower Friday after a stronger-than-expected snapshot on inflation renewed economic concerns days before the US Federal Reserve meets to mull US interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.41 per cent at 12,110.41 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped 0.25 per cent to 2,372.66 points.

The broad-market Standard Poor's 500 lost 0.38 per cent to end at 1,386.95.—-AFP