Europe: Stocks rise at open; Sky soars on Comcast bid

[LONDON] European stocks climbed at the open on Tuesday, with British satellite TV giant Sky soaring almost 20 per cent on a surprise rival takeover bid from US cable giant Comcast.

In initial trade, the British capital's benchmark FTSE 100 index advanced 0.4 per cent to 7,391.91 points.

Sky's share price soared 18.2 per cent to £13.06 after Comcast bid more than £22 billion (S$40.55 billion) to buy the pan-European broadcaster.

Shortly before the open, Comcast unexpectedly revealed it had offered more per share than a bid from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

Fox had bid £11.4 billion two years ago for the 61 per cent of Sky it does not own.

Meanwhile, in eurozone trading on Tuesday, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index opened 0.4 per cent higher at 12,573.65 points.

The Paris CAC 40 rose 0.3 per cent to 5,358.57 compared with the closing level on Monday.

AFP