LONDON, April 16: European equity markets sparkled on Monday, with London's FTSE 100 shares index at the highest level for almost six and a half years as investors spied a potential bidding war for Dutch bank ABN Amro.

In late morning trade on Friday, the FTSE 100 index soared 0.22 per cent to 6,497.00 points -- the highest point since November 8, 2000. It later stood at 6,493.70, up 0.48 per cent from Friday's close.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.73 per cent to 7,264.51 points, in Paris the CAC 40 increased 0.50 per cent to 5,818.51 points, and in Dutch trading the Amsterdam Exchanges Index surged 1.23 per cent to 530.11 in afternoon deals.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip shares won 0.75 per cent to 4,349.86 points.

The euro stood at 1.3556 dollars.

Wall Street shares had finished higher on Friday after a choppy day's trade as investor confidence picked up momentum before the weekend.

In Europe on Monday, investors tracked news on ABN Amro, which is in exclusive talks with Britain's Barclays Bank about a takeover deal.

ABN Amro had revealed last Friday that Bank of Scotland (RBS), Dutch group Fortis and Banco Santander of Spain, had also approached it about a possible acquisition -- sparking speculation over a potential bidding war.

We expect a bidding process (for ABN Amro) as more banks are likely to express their interest, analysts at Keefe Bruyette and Woods said.

The broker added that other interested parties could include Dutch banking and insurance group ING, Bank of America and Bank of Montreal.

In Amsterdam, ABN shares rocketed 6.24 per cent to 35.75 euros in Monday afternoon trade.

In London, Barclays shares raced 1.08 per cent higher to 751.5 pence, while RBS shares surged 2.97 per cent to 2,083 pence. RBS, the second biggest British bank was boosted also after selling 47 Marriott hotels to an Irish-led investment consortium for 1.1 billion pounds (1.6 billion euros, 2.2 billion dollars).

In Madrid, Santander shares added 0.36 per cent to 13.91 euros as broker UBS said that ABN's Brazilian assets would be a good fit.

However, back in Amsterdam, Fortis stock sank 1.24 per cent to 34.37 euros.

In US deals on Friday, the major share indexes notched up respectable gains despite some lacklustre corporate earnings reports and lukewarm economic news.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.47 per cent at 12,612.13 points. The Nasdaq composite rebounded to close up 0.47 per cent at 2,491.94 points while the Standard and Poor's 500 broad-market index gained 0.35 per cent to 1,452.85.—AFP