Comcast's Sky bid pushes European media stocks to month high
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LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - M&A activity spiced up a more reserved start to European share trading on Tuesday after Comcast (Swiss: CMCSA.SW - news) made a surprise counterbid for pay-TV group Sky (Amsterdam: BK8.AS - news) , sending its shares soaring.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent by 0833 GMT, while the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent.
Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) jumped more than 18 percent on the back of Comcast's $31 billion offer, which could scupper Fox's plan to buy out Sky and sell it to Walt Disney (Swiss: DIS-USD.SW - news) .
Sky shares were trading well above Comcast's offer price, suggesting some investors expect Fox/Disney to come back with a higher offer.
Europe's media index was the top-performing sector, up 1.7 percent at a one-month high. Shares in British broadcaster and content producer ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) rose 2.3 percent.
Results were once again in focus, with UK housebuilder Persimmon (Frankfurt: 882058 - news) advancing 12 percent after it reported a jump in full-year earnings and a higher reservations rate and boosted its interim dividend.
The results fired up the whole sector, with Berkeley up 2.9 percent and Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW.L - news) climbing 2.8 percent.
Outside of the STOXX, troubled subprime lender Provident Financial saw its shares soar 37 percent after saying it would raise 331 million pounds via a rights issue.
The broader stocks performance was more muted, however, ahead of testimony from the new U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later in the day - watched for clues about future rate hikes and his view on recent market volatility.
Concerns over rising inflation and higher bond yields sparked a global equity market sell-off at the beginning of February, but as bond yields have eased this has taken the pressure off equity indexes slightly.
(Reporting by Kit Rees; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)