Ryanair Holdings shares advance, Northumbrian Water also higher By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares shook off early losses on Monday to edge higher in the first session in February, helped by gains for airline Ryanair and bid speculation for utilities. After spending most of the session in the red, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 247.30, +0.34, +0.14%) rose 0.2% to 247.32, paring year-to-date losses to 2.6%. "Three disparate catalysts have triggered the current correction: Chinese monetary policy, U.S. bank reforms and Greek fiscal concerns," said equity strategists at UBS. Still, they believe the above events "will most likely turn out to be manageable" and not enough to de-rail the economic recovery. Also "falling equity prices and rising earnings have left European equities as cheap as they have been since the July 2009 correction," the strategists noted. On the regional level, with the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,219, +30.74, +0.59%) up 0.5% at 5,214.44, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,632, +23.09, +0.41%) up 0.3% at 5,625.57 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,754, +14.28, +0.38%) up 0.2% at 3,746.37. U.S. stocks got off to a higher start on Monday, helped by oil giant Exxon Mobil beating profit estimates. Read more on Exxon Mobil earnings. There was some cheer on the earnings front in Europe as well, with shares of Irish airline Ryanair (DE:RY4B 3.35, +0.04, +1.12%) up 6.2% on the Irish stock exchange after it narrowed its third-quarter net loss and lifted profit guidance. Read more on Ryanair results. Spanish airline Iberia (ES:IBLA 2.25, +0.05, +2.32%) , up 2.1% on Bolsa de Madrid, and British Airways (UK:BAY 212.60, +6.50, +3.15%) , up 3.1% on the London Stock Exchange, are set to merge and Goldman Sachs analysts said Monday that they believe the merger will go through, possibly ahead of schedule. "This, plus the potential for antitrust immunity with American on the north Atlantic, represents meaningful positive change versus the last cycle," the broker said. Meanwhile, deal speculation helped shares of U.K. water utility Northumbrian Water (UK:NWG 287.00, +28.40, +10.98%) jump 11.8% to 289 pence a share on the London Stock Exchange. The Sunday Times newspaper reported over the weekend that the Ontario Teachers pension fund, which holds over a quarter of the firm, is considering a bid valuing the company at 1.7 billion pounds ($2.7 billion), or 325 pence a share. Other U.K. utilities advancing after the report included Severn Trent (UK:SVT 1,179, +53.00, +4.71%) , up 4.6%, with the move boosting the wider U.K. market. Read more on U.K. market action. In the auto sector, Renault (FR:RNO 35.03, +0.77, +2.23%) shares were up 2.1% on Euronext Paris. New passenger car registrations in France for the automaker jumped 59% during January. Total registrations of new passenger cars in France rose 14%. PSA Peugeot Citroen (FR:UG 23.89, +0.26, +1.08%) , up 0.8%, saw registrations climb 18%. PSA Peugeot Citroen is recalling almost 100,000 vehicles that could have the same accelerator-related trouble that caused Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive recall, it emerged over the weekend. See full story. Still, Vivendi (FR:VIV 18.40, -0.45, -2.39%) shares lost 2.6%, or 0.50 euros, to trade at 18.36 euros a share after a U.S. jury found the French company liable for misstatements about its financial health in 2001 and in 2002. The lawyer representing shareholders suing the firm said they were seeking as much as $4 billion in damages. Analysts at UBS said Vivendi's damages equate to as much as 2.40 euros a share, though they noted the stock has already dropped 2.60 euros a share from its peak in January. UBS (CH:UBSN 14.00, -0.03, -0.21%) (UBS 13.25, +0.24, +1.85%) shares fell 0.5% after reports that Germany is considering buying data on around 1,500 German taxpayers who may have used Swiss accounts to evade tax. Read more on Swiss banking,

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