European shares touch 4-month high, SFR surges higher

LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - European shares climbed to a four-month high on Monday, with telecom company SFR leading the gainers after Altice made an exchange offer for remainder of SFR shares.

SFR shares surged 6.7 percent after rival French telecoms group Altice said it planned to simplify its ownership structure by exchanging its shares for the outstanding 22.25 percent of shares of SFR it does not already own.

Shares in Altice were also up by 4.7 percent, with the STOXX Europe 600 Telecoms index up by 0.4 percent.

Swiss software maker Temenos also rose 4.4 percent after Credit Suisse raised its stance on the stock to "outperform" from "neutral", saying it expected the company to continue to surprise on the upside in the coming quarters, including an increase of the 2016 guidance.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent at 0723 GMT, after setting its highest level since late April.

The STOXX 600 also built on a 2 percent rise in the previous session when weaker-than-expected U.S jobs data led investors to pare back bets on an imminent U.S. interest rate hike.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)