By Sara Sjolin

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets rallied on Monday, with investors waiting for U.S. bellwether Alcoa Inc. AA +1.30% to kick off the earnings season later in the day. Banks posted some of the biggest gains in the pan-European index. Shares of Banco Comercial Portugues SA PT:BCP +4.60% gained 5.8%, Lloyds Banking Group PLC UK:LLOY +2.68% LYG +0.52% rose 2.5% and Danske Bank AS DK:DANSKE +2.80% picked up 1.6%. Among country-specific indexes, Germany’s DAX 30 index DX:DAX +2.41% jumped 1.2%, while France’s CAC 40 index FR:PX1 +1.90% added 1.1% to 3,795.77. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index UK:UKX +1.02% traded 0.8% higher at 6,425.09.

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Europe stocks rebound ahead of Alcoa earnings