July 14, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1428

LONDON, July 13: Europe's equity markets rallied on Friday, with Frankfurt's DAX 30 index of top shares hitting a historic record above 8,150 points after Wall Street soared overnight, dealers said.

Sentiment remains positive after US stocks surged higher, said analysts at the Sucden brokerage in London.

The takeover battle for control of Dutch bank ABN Amro also loomed large over European equities, which won back heavy losses from earlier this week, dealers said.

Added to the merger and acquisitions newsflow was Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto's recent 38.1-billion-dollar takeover bid for Canadian group Alcan.

Shortly after trading began, Germany's DAX 30 rocketed as high as 8,151.57 points -- which beat its previous all-time record set on March 7, 2000. It later stood at 8,077.88, up 0.30 per cent from Thursday's close.

Elsewhere in Europe on Friday, London's FTSE 100 index added 0.20 per cent to 6,710.90 and in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.22 per cent to 6,116.19 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares won 0.39 per cent to 4,535.20 points.

The euro stood at 1.3781 dollars, which was not far off Thursday's record high of 1.3798 dollars.

In US trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose skyrocketed two per cent to a record close of 13,861.73 points as investors cheered the Rio Tinto deal and some upbeat retail sales news.

The per centage rise in the Dow was the largest in almost four years.

In London, shares in The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays rallied after a Dutch ruling that takeover target ABN Amro could sell its US unit without shareholder approval. RBS climbed 0.71 per cent to 639 pence, while Barclays advanced 0.63 per cent to 723 pence.

The news from the Dutch Supreme Court lifted a major obstacle to British bank Barclays' bid to buy ABN Amro for 67 billion euros (90.1 billion dollars) because the deal included the sale of US arm LaSalle to Bank of America.

In Amsterdam, ABN Amro shares jumped 0.65 per cent higher to 35.56 euros, while Fortis rose 0.48 per cent to 31.20 euros. In Madrid, Santander's share price gained 0.57 per cent to 14.10 euros.

In Frankfurt, shares in chemicals giant BASF and banking/insurance group Allianz both leapt by more than one per cent on positive comments from broker UBS.

Across the Atlantic on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied amid frenzied optimism as investors shrugged off persistent fears about the depressed US housing market.

The S and P leapt 1.91 per cent to a record closing high of 1,547.70 points while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite soared 1.88 per cent to a robust finish of 2,701.73.—AFP