In Europe on Thursday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.2 percent to 1,387.36, it’s highest close in nearly five years. Even so, it fell back substantially from the high of 1,392.85 in reached earlier in the day as mining stocks in the UK saw losses.

The telecommunications sector was mixed. Nokia added 5.6 percent to €18.40 on a first-quarter earnings and sales report that was well ahead of forecasts. However, Ericsson was down 0.4 percent to SKr28.70 ahead of its first-quarter report, due Friday.

In the semiconductor sector, STMicroelectronics was helped by Nokia’s result and added 2.6 percent to €15.60.

Dutch chemicals company Akzo Nobel gained 6 percent on the day to €46.29 after releasing a better-than-expected quarterly report and a positive outlook statement for the second quarter. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein reiterated its “add” recommendation and its target share price at €46. The rest of the sector benefited from Akzo Nobel’s report. BASF was up 3.3 percent to €67.55, Bayer added 1.9 percent to €34.32, and DSM gained 1.7 percent to €36.83.

Foods group Danone added 1.3 percent to €100.70 as it reported close to a 15 percent rise in sales in the first quarter and issued a positive outlook. Even so, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated its “underperform” rating on Danone and kept its target share price at €76. The agency did, however, say that if there was an offer for the company, its share price could rise as much as 20 percent.

German software company SAP released a slightly less positive report. While license revenues were higher than had been anticipated, operating margins were lower than expected and there was no change in its full-year guidance. As a result, SAP dropped 0.9 percent to €181.50.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.8 percent to 1,381.24 on Monday on new mergers and acquisition news and on gains in the automobile manufacturing sector.

The big news was the merger between French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel and US peer Lucent Technologies. Alcatel was up 4.8 percent to €13.38 after it was announced on Sunday that it will purchase Lucent for $13.4 billion. The two companies had been talking merger for five years. In other news affecting Alcatel, French defence electronics company Thales gained 1.6 percent to €37.26 on the announcement that its board will meet Tuesday to explore closer ties with Alcatel, which already owns 9.5 percent of Thales.

In Spanish mergers and acquisitions news, construction company Acciona added 2.8 percent to €132.10 on rumors that it will try to acquire Abengoa, the engineering group. Acciona is up more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year.

Dutch chemicals firm DSM lost 1.8 percent to €37.01 after it said it had added to its stake in nutritional group Sciona. The move led UBS to cut its recommendation on DSM from “neutral” to “reduce”.

The European automobile manufacturing sector was taken higher by strong data on sales. After reporting that its sales in China was up 40 percent in the first quarter, Volkswagen added 2.7 percent to €63.99. China is VW’s second largest market. Meanwhile, Fiat was up 3.9 percent to €10.80 in anticipation of March’s Italian sales data, which is expected to show that the company’s sales grew faster than the overall market.