European markets closed higher, reassured by the benign US jobs data which reduced the prospect of a rate rise in the US in the short-term.
The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index rose 4.69 to 1,143.56 while the FTSE Eurotop 100 was up 1.66 to 3,146.18. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index climbed 2.95 to 1,365.23.
Frankfurt gained ground for the fifth successive session, adding 22.48 at 5,658.10 on the Xetra DAX index.
Renewed take-over talk sent Mannesmann up €12.60 at €161.30. At the height of last month's rumours following the group's bid for Orange, the British mobile phones operator, the shares reached €162.50.
Sportswear group Adidas rose €2.20 to €78.50 and retailer Karstadt also came in for buying, rising €1.75 at €45.25. Linde added a further €1.35 at €52.85 as the stock over-hang problems posed by the group's share issue faded.
Among financials, Dresdner Bank rose a further €1.21 to €50.58 as broker optimism about the group's planned restructuring continued to spark buying.
Paris forged to its sixth consecutive record high, lifted by the US employment report.
The benchmark CAC-40 index closed up 32.16 at 4,975.90. But the proximity of the psychologically important 5,000 level capped gains.
Casino, the French retailer, roared higher on renewed speculative buying. Casino, cited as a possible takeover target for the US retailer Wal-Mart, closed up €8.90 at €123.90, a rise of 7.74 per cent.
Madrid ended higher bringing gains for the Ibex-35 over the past two weeks to almost 1,000 points. The Ibex closed up 117.9 at 10,231.3.
Star performers included Telefonica which continued to bask in the glory of Terra, its Internet spin-off. Shares rose 36 cents to €16.92.
Endesa, the electricity company, also rose strongly, closing up 66 cents to €20.05, lifted by better prospects for its Latin American units.
Amsterdam was overshadowed by a fall of more than 10 per cent at washing powder to margarine giant Unilever and at the close the AEX index was off 1.83 at 582.93.
Unilever crashed 9 per cent to a fresh low for the year after disappointing analysts with third-quarter earnings that fell substantially short of market estimates. The stock, which stood at €75.80 in January, ended off €6.25 at €56.05 in some of the heaviest trading of the year, with 20.3 million shares changing hands.
The sharper movers included Philips, which gained 90 cents at €105.40, and Royal Dutch where Thursday's disappointing third-quarter results sent the stock down a further €1.54 at €54.46. Zurich saw its advance capped by a sharp fall in Nestle, which came under pressure from the weak interim figures reported by Unilever.
However, the SMI index still finished 44.2 higher at 7,345.5 with Novartis again the main driving force.
