Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland shares advance in banking sector By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares jumped on Monday, with banks in the lead, after Abu Dhabi provided $10 billion of finance to debt-laden Dubai to stave off a potential default of a bond due to mature today. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 247.04, +1.91, +0.78%) rose 0.9% to 247.38, the third day of gains for the index. In the banking sector, shares of Standard Chartered (UK:STAN 1,574, +64.00, +4.24%) were up 4.9% and Royal Bank of Scotland (UK:RBS 31.44, +0.88, +2.86%) (RBS 10.02, -0.16, -1.57%) shares were up 4.1%. British banks are thought to be some of the most exposed to Dubai's debt woes. Dubai's conglomerate Dubai World roiled global markets in late November when it said that it wanted to suspend debt payments for six months. However, on Monday it said that it has received $10 billion in financing from fellow emirate Abu Dhabi, which it will use to pay part of the debt held by Dubai World and its property unit Nakheel. The statement also said that the United Arab Emirates Central Bank, which governs monetary policy in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other UAE constituents, "is also prepared to provide support to local UAE banks." Read more on Dubai finance. On a regional level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,317, +55.91, +1.06%) climbed 1.1% to 5,318.88, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,818, +62.05, +1.08%) rose 0.9% to 5,810.83 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,834, +29.87, +0.79%) advanced 0.9% to 3,836.87. Asian shares were mostly higher, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to a higher open on Wall Street. Deal-making has also been more of a theme for equity investors of late, and chocolate maker Cadbury (UK:CBRY 797.00, +5.50, +0.70%) (CBY 51.45, -0.01, -0.02%) , up 0.4% to 794 pence, reiterated its rejection of Kraft Foods's (KFT 26.79, +0.11, +0.41%) offer to buy the firm on Monday. It made that statement while detailing that its performance to the end of November has been in line expectations and that full-year constant currency revenue growth is expected to be in the middle of its 4% to 6% goal range. Cadbury is targeting 5% to 7% revenue growth over the next four years, on margins between 16% and 18% in 2013. Axa (FR:CS 15.88, +0.26, +1.63%) shares were up 1.7% in Paris after AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (AU:AXA 5.72, -0.10, -1.72%) said that it will "carefully consider" a revised $11.7 billion bid from AMP and AXA. Bwin shares jumped 5.6% in Austria. The Financial Times reported that the firm is in informal talks with PartyGaming (UK:PRTY 262.40, +6.30, +2.46%) , up 3.3%, over a merger but also that a deal wasn't imminent. Hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread (UK:WTB 1,374, +44.00, +3.31%) , up 3%, also updated investors on trading, saying that its expecting fiscal 2010 results to exceed analyst estimates after it cut costs. Positive sales momentum has also helped, the firm said, with third-quarter comparable sales up 0.3%.

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