European shares posted slight gains Monday, extending a rally scored at the end of last week after a summit meeting of European Union leaders produced more progress than expected toward shoring up the euro-zone banking sector. The Stoxx 600 Europe index (XX:SXXP) +1.00% gained 0.8% to 253.08. Banks were among top gainers, with HSBC Holdings PLC (UK:HSBA) +2.00% HBC +1.01% advancing 0.7% in London, while Standard Chartered PLC (UK:STAN) +2.00% rose 2.5%. Shares of Barclays (UK:BARC) +5.00% BCS -4.98% surged 3.8% after Chairman Marcus Agius stepped down in the wake of the bank paying a massive fine last week to settle charges it engaged in manipulation and false reporting of benchmark interest rates. Barclays posted a double-digit percentage loss last week. According to Market Watch, Linde AG (XE:LIN) -3.00% dropped 3.6% after the German gases and engineering company said late Sunday that it has offered to buy U.S. home-care health company Lincare Holdings Inc. LNCR +5.33% LNCR +5.33% LNCR +5.33% Linde will offer $41.50 a share, or $4.6 billion, in cash to Lincare shareholders. Germany's DAX 30 index (DX:DAX) +1.00% rose 1% to 6,477.15, while France's CAC 40 index (FR:PX1) +4.75% gained 1% to 3,227.15. Spain's IBEX 35 index (XX:IBEX) +1.00% lost 0.6% to 7,062.70.
