Europe shares halt rally; Lafarge, Holcim surge on merger

PARIS, April 7 (Reuters) - European stocks fell in early trading on Monday, halting their brisk three-week rally and tracking a selloff on Wall Street on Friday where a number of high-growth companies mostly in the tech and biotech tumbled.

Losses were cushioned, however, as M&A activity in Europe fuelled hopes of further consolidation.

Switzerland's Holcim (Other OTC: HCMLF - news) unveiled an all-share deal to buy France's Lafarge (Munich: CIL.MU - news) on Monday to create the world's biggest cement maker with combined sales of 32 billion euros ($44 billion). Holcim shares were up 5.6 percent while Lafarge gained 3.8 percent.

Numericable jumped 15 percent after winning a fierce month-long bidding war against mobile rival Bouygues (Frankfurt: BYG.F - news) for the prize of SFR as Vivendi (TLO: VIV.TI - news) announced it had decided to go with Numericable's offer. Bouygues (Other OTC: BOUYF - news) shares were down 6.2 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Atul Prakash)