The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 236.61, +1.76, +0.75%) rose 0.8% to 236.62, after picking up 2.7% last week. With 14 sectors out of 15 trading in the green, miners led the broad-based advance with a 2.8% rise. Particular standouts included Rio Tinto (UK:RIO 2,484, +86.50, +3.61%) (RTP 159.25, +5.39, +3.50%) , shares of which rose 3.7%, and Xstrata (UK:XTA 863.00, +28.50, +3.42%) , up 3.3%. "We believe the mining sector is well positioned for the ongoing economic recovery as commodity prices in many cases should continue to significantly exceed the market's still overly-conservative expectations," said analysts at Barclays Capital. Silver and copper futures gained ground in electronic trading on Monday. Also higher, shares of French mining firm Eramet (FR:ERA 223.80, +19.50, +9.54%) jumped 8.6%. Nomura Securities upped its rating on Eramet to buy from neutral, saying the market doesn't appear to widely know that manganese ore prices have increased sharply, citing data from Metal Bulletin and Vale management. Such information isn't reflected on Bloomberg's manganese ore price chart, because the news service gets its data from Metal Bulletin on a lag, Nomura added. At the regional level, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,882, +31.25, +0.64%) rose 0.7% to 4,885.48, the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,641, +25.20, +0.70%) advanced 0.7% to 3,640.59 and the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,498, +35.23, +0.65%) climbed 0.6% to 5,496.16. Asia markets traded higher to start the week, while U.S. stock futures pointed to a stronger open on Wall Street. See Indications. Stocks closed higher on Friday after a stronger-than-forecast reading for U.S. existing-home sales as well as optimistic comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, also said over the weekend there are signs of an improving economy though he stressed that there was still a "very bumpy road ahead of us."

Source