European stocks gained ground Friday as higher crude-oil prices boosted petroleum shares, while drug maker GlaxoSmithKline strengthened after one of its drugs received U.S. approval and competitor Merck & Co. raised its profit outlook. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6 percent to 382.95, with the oil and gas and health care sectors in the lead, according to AP. Shares of BP and Royal Dutch Shell both added 2.3 percent in London, while Total moved up 1.4 percent in Paris, supported by higher crude prices tied to refinery outages in the U.S. Also, Citigroup equity strategists said that they have become more positive on the oil and gas sector as it has lagged the general market. They said that a big de-equitization is unlikely, but that sector valuations are inexpensive. European equities have had a good start to the year, returning more than 5 percent so far, the Citigroup strategists noted. They said that the key pillars of their bull case _ the macroeconomic environment, reasonable profits and valuations, and the possibility for more de-equitization _ all remain in place. Britain's FTSE 100 index closed up 0.7 percent at 6,462.40, the German DAX Xetra 30 index tacked on 1 percent at 7,212.07 and the French CAC-40 index gained 0.7 percent at 5,789.34. European equities extended gains as U.S. stocks got off to a positive start, playing off a tame reading on core wholesale-inflation data and drug maker Merck's revised earnings outlook, among other factors. Merck raised its first-quarter and annual profit forecasts for the second time since January late Thursday, once more citing «strong performance» across its product lines. This spilled over into the European drug sector. «Pharma stocks have received a shot in the arm,» said analysts at Charles Stanley Securities. In Britain, AstraZeneca saw its shares rise 2.5 percent, while GlaxoSmithKline added 2.4 percent. And on the Continent, Novartis, Roche Holdings and Sanofi-Aventis all ended more than 1 percent higher. GlaxoSmithKline said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its anti-bacterial Altabax for the topical treatment of impetigo late Thursday. Also, SkyePharma Plc said Friday that the FDA has accepted for filing the application by development partner GlaxoSmithKline for Requip XL 24-hour extended-release tablets. Requip XL is the proposed brand name for a formulation of ropinirole for treating Parkinson's disease. Skyepharma's shares rose 1 percent in London. In deal news, shares of French-Spanish tobacco firm Altadisrose 1.3 percent after a report that CVC Capital, the private-equity group whose bid for supermarket group J. Sainsbury just collapsed, is close to forming a consortium to make an offer for Altadis, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes. CVC, along with French private-equity firm PAI, are mulling a bid that would trump Imperial Tobacco's offer of ¤12 billion (US$16 billion), or ¤47 a share, for Altadis, the Financial Times and the Spanish newspaper L'Expansion reported on Friday. Shares of Imperial Tobacco slipped 1.3 percent in London. Meanwhile, shares of Cadbury Schweppes rose 1.7 percent after a report that Canadian bottler Cott Corp. is in talks with private-equity firms over merging its operations with Cadbury's beverage division. -- SPA
