European stocks close:

European stocks climbed to a five- month high, led by a rally in banks, as Greece bargained with bondholders over debt relief and Germany floated the idea of combining Europe’s two rescue funds.

European Union finance chiefs started discussing the region’s rescue funds, Greece’s latest offer to bondholders, a German-inspired deficit-control treaty and nominees to the European Central Bank’s board today.

National benchmark indexes rose in 15 of the 18 western European markets today.

FTSE 100 5,783 +54.01 +0.94%, CAC 40 3,338 +16.92 +0.51%, DAX 6,437 +32.23 +0.50%

UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank, rallied 10 percent to 3.66 euros while Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, the nation’s third-biggest, surged 14 percent to 26.23 euro cents and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA climbed 5.4 percent to 1.46 euros.

Elsewhere, Commerzbank gained 13 percent to 1.95 euros in Frankfurt trading. Societe Generale SA climbed 8.6 percent to 22.80 euros in Paris, a tenth day of gains for the longest winning streak since March 2009.

Outokumpu jumped 18 percent to 7.97 euros as ThyssenKrupp said it’s in talks to merge its Inoxum stainless steel unit with the Finnish company. All options for the unit are still open, including an initial public offering, spinoff or a sale to an investor, ThyssenKrupp said.

ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s largest steelmaker, rallied 2.6 percent to 21.26 euros.