European Stocks to Watch: Pirelli and Telecom Italia

Shares of Italy’s Pirelli soared to 9.67% Monday morning after it revealed late Sunday that it was in talks with U.S. telecom giant AT&T and its Mexican affiliate America Movil to sell two-thirds of its 80% stake in holding company Olimpia for 2.82 euros a share less debt.

Olimpia controls Telecom Italia.

Telecom Italia’s shares rose to 9.90% at 2.3 euros after the market opened.

Goldman Sachs also added Telecom Italia ordinary shares to its sell list on Monday.

Both stocks were the biggest gainers on the MIB Index.

Also active in European trading:

Iberia (up 1.25%) The airline’s shares increased after The Times of London reported that private equity company Texas Pacific Group is looking for a Spanish partner to join its 3.4 billion euro bid for the Spanish company.

France Telecom (up 2.23%) and Deutsche Telekom (up 2.19%) Shares of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom were driven up by the M&A activity in the telecoms sector early Monday morning.

Flughafen Wien (up 4.60%) Shares rose after Raiffeisen Bank raised its price target to 82 euros from 79 euros and kept its ‘buy’ rating.

Novabase (up 6.15%) The technology company’s shares rose after weekly Espresso reported that Canada’s CGI Group and Hewlett-Packard were interested in the Portuguese company.

Novartis (down 4.16%) Novartis cut its 2007 sales forecast on Friday after pulling bowel drug Zelnorm from U.S. shelves after clinical trial data pointed out a possible link to heart attacks and strokes.