European shares opened higher on Monday as investors eyed key central bank meetings this week and despite a surge in cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.3% in early deals. Asian closed higher after US stocks surged on Friday, driven by US inflation data, which was well within market expectations.
Investor focus is on monetary policy decisions expected to be taken by the European Central Bank (ECB), the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan this week.
Analysts expect the ECB to halve the amount of assets it buys each month from April.
In equity news, Vifor Pharma soared more than 15% after Australian biopharma giant CSL confirmed it was in talks to buy the Swiss drugmaker in a deal reportedly worth about $7.2bn.
Shares in Norwegian energy and aluminium company Norsk Hydro were up as it announced new improvement targets as well as new sustainability ambitions and plans to pay a bigger dividend for 2021 following a jump in earnings
UniCredit rose after the bank said it wanted to grow its domestic footprint and could consider tie-ups in Italy and beyond, but has no interest in the country’s biggest insurer Generali and its top shareholder Mediobanca.
Air France KLM gained after the flag carrier redeemed €500m euros from an earlier state loan issued to help it cope with the impact of the pandemic, and said it could also raise new equity.
