By Danilo Masoni
MILAN (Reuters) - European shares hit their highest level in more than two years on Monday as confidence over global economic growth continued to boost investor appetite for world stocks.
A buoyant auto sector, fresh dealmaking activity and a better-than-expected update from chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor also buoyed sentiment, lifting the STOXX 600 (STOXX) index up as much as 0.4 percent to levels last seen in August 2015.
The pan-European index pared some of the opening gains and was up 0.2 percent by 1000 GMT. Germany's DAX (GDAXI) added 0.3 percent, while Britain's FTSE (FTSE) was flat.
The European auto index (SXAP) led sectoral gainers, up 1 percent to its highest since May 2015, extending last week's strong rally on upbeat prospects for the sector this year.
Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler (MI:FCHA) rose as much as 3 percent to a new all-time high after a note from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) highlighting the potential of a spin-off of its Jeep brand.
"2018 is an extremely important year for Jeep from a product and strategic perspective, which we believe can gain investor attention and continue to unlock the discount on the stock," analysts at the U.S. brokerage said.
Elsewhere in the sector France's Peugeot (PA:PEUP) was up 1.2 percent, while Germany's BMW (DE:BMWG), Daimler (DE:DAIGn) and Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) rose between 0.3 and 1.7 percent.
On the M&A front, Novo Nordisk (CO:NOVOb) inched up slightly after the Danish drugmaker said it had made a 2.6 billion euros bid for Belgian biotech group Ablynx (BR:ABLX), offering a 32 percent premium to Friday's closing price.
Ablynx shares, which have almost doubled in value in the past 12 months, were halted on request of the local financial markets regulator.
Dialog Semiconductor (DE:DLGS), recently hit by investor fears it could lose its top customer Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), rose 3.5 percent. The chipmaker reported preliminary sales of $463 million for the fourth quarter, above the upper end of its outlook range announced in November.
"While the higher sales level is positive news, key for the investment case will be the business volume with Apple over the coming years," said Baader Helvea analysts.
Micro Focus (L:MCRO) however plummeted 14.5 percent, leading losers on the STOXX following its half year results, which missed some analyst expectations.
The British firm that bought Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) software assets in a $8.8 billion deal said its revenue would fall 2-4 percent in the 12 months to October, after a disappointing sales performance in the acquired business in recent months.