European shares led higher by telecoms, Unilever slump weighs

MILAN (Reuters) - European shares slightly rose on Monday, helped by stronger telecoms stocks, but a slump in Unilever following Kraft Heinz's 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 following a Reuters report that SoftBank <9984.T> is prepared to give up control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile US to clinch a merger of the two U.S. wireless carriers. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni)