European stocks hit all-time highs

• German DAX briefly hits record high

AMSTERDAM/LONDON: European stocks scaled new highs on Monday on broad-based gains, but worries about the pace of economic recovery made defensive sectors the best bid while travel stocks slumped with the Delta variant of coronavirus becoming dominant.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.7% and hit 461.10, extending gains from Friday after a tumultuous week. Germany’s DAX also briefly touched a new high of 15,806.900 before closing just below that level.

Real estate, utilities and healthcare were among the best-gaining sectors, up between 1.4% and 1.6%. Travel and leisure dropped 1.3% with British airlines leading losses.

Among individual stocks, Daily Mail and General Trust Plc jumped 3.3% after it said its largest shareholder, the Rothermere family, might take the British newspaper private in a 810-million-pound ($1.13 billion) deal, if the sales of its insurance risk unit and Cazoo business go through.

France’s outdoor advertising company JCDecaux jumped 10.1% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to “overweight”, citing a sharp rebound in its air passenger numbers. French IT consulting group Atos slumped 17.9% to the bottom of STOXX 600 after it cut full-year earnings forecast. The World Health Organisation said on Monday the infectious Delta variant was becoming dominant, and many countries had yet to receive enough vaccine doses to protect their health workers.

But England was still set to lift Covid-19 curbs next week.