US stock indexes rose for a fifth successive day, as a fresh wave of deal news, including a $27 billion (€19.85 billion) hostile bid by US aluminium giant Alcoa fuelled demand for equities.

While Irish and British markets were closed yesterday, European shares ended virtually flat as declines by ABN Amro and oil groups Total and Royal Dutch Shell offset gains by French utilities and Deutsche Bank.

Alcoa's bid for Canadian group Alcan sent Alcoa shares up 6.2 per cent to $37.88 in New York. Alcan shares surged 32.2 per cent to $80.68. Alcoa-Alcan would together control about 25 per cent of the global aluminium market with capacity well above that of Rusal, the Russian owner of Aughinish Alumina in Co Limerick.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 39.82 points at 13,304.44. The Nasdaq index was up 2.61 points at 2,574.76.

Though European volumes were lighter than usual, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index edged up 0.04 per cent to 1,594.61 after rising to its highest since December 2000.

The CAC 40 index in Paris rose 0.04 per cent the day after Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidential election. "French CAC-4O leaders were for Sarkozy. His victory had been widely expected by the market," said Francois Garnier, of HMG Finance in Paris.

Frankfurt's DAX added 0.12 per cent.