M&A, Metals Help European Stocks End 1.8% Higher

European stocks broke a three-day losing run to end higher on Thursday as acquisition and restructuring.

European stocks broke a three-day losing run to end higher on Thursday as acquisition and restructuring, coupled with high metal prices, took investors' minds off worries over the U.S. mortgage market.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended unofficially up 1.83 percent at 1,453.57 points, its biggest one-day gain since a slide in global equities started on Feb.27.

"We're in a phase where we're going to have good days and bad days and volatility is likely to be with us for a while," said Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin.

"Over a month, I doubt we'll get much beyond where we were before the latest bout of selling began," he said.

Franco-Spanish tobacco group Altadis was the top gainer in Europe, rising nearly 17 percent after British rival Imperial Tobacco Plc launched a 11.5-billion-euro bid for the company. Imperial was up 8.5 percent.

French IT services firm Atos Origin rose nearly 25 percent as it confirmed it had received takeover interest.

Carmaker DaimlerChrysler led German gainers, rising nearly 4 percent on talk that the sale of its Chrysler unit could go through faster than expected, and drugs and chemicals group Bayer rose 3 percent after it set higher margin targets.

Miners gained from a 4.3-percent rise in the price of copper to $6,519 a tonne, and a 5.6-percent rise in nickel, which lifted stock in Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Anglo American by more than 5 percent.