MILAN (Reuters) - European shares slightly rose on Monday, helped by stronger telecoms stocks, but a slump in Unilever (L:ULVR) following Kraft Heinz's (O:KHC) abrupt withdrawal of its $143 billion (115.05 billion pounds) bid for its larger rival weighed on the broader market.
By 0822 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index (STOXX) was up 0.3 percent, while UK's FTSE (FTSE) edged up 0.1 percent.
Unilever shares fell 8 percent, making them the biggest fallers on the STOXX. People familiar with the matter said Kraft withdrew its offer because it felt it was too difficult to negotiate a deal following the public disclosure of its bid so soon after its approach to Unilever.
Telecoms stocks (SXKP) rose 1.3 percent, led higher by a 2.2 percent surge in Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn) following a Reuters report that SoftBank (T:9984) is prepared to give up control of Sprint (N:S) to Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile US (O:TMUS) to clinch a merger of the two U.S. wireless carriers.