European shares rose for the sixth session in seven on Tuesday, with Barclays leading banks higher after it kicked off the UK sector's reporting season with forecast-beating results. Commodity shares gained on higher crude and metals prices, which were helped by US manufacturing data.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 1 percent to 1,002.10 points, its highest close since February 3. The index is down 4.2 percent this year, partly due to worries about Greece's deficit, but is up more than 55 percent from the lifetime low it hit on March 9, 2009.
"The cyclical tailwind is still intact, with good support from economic data, as well as from companies' earnings," said Tammo Greetfeld, equity strategist at UniCredit Group. "But there is downside risk from how the Greek deficit problems evolve."
Banks added the most points to the index. Barclays jumped 6.8 percent after the bank said it had started the year well having beat expectations, with 2009 profits of over 11.6 billion pounds ($18.18 billion).
Royal Bank of Scotland rose 5.3 percent after J.P. Morgan said it was buying the non-US assets of commodities joint venture RBS Sempra from RBS and Sempra Energy for about $1.7 billion cash. BNP Paribas rose 2.8 percent ahead of results on Wednesday. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Lloyds and Societe Generale rose between 1.6 and 4.7 percent. Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index ended the day 1.5 percent higher; Germany's DAX rose 1.5 percent and France's CAC 40 1.7 percent respectively.
Miners were in favour as copper rose more than 3 percent, and other metals gained. Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Vedanta were 3.1 to 5.2 percent higher. On the downside, French company L'Oreal fell 4.7 percent, having announced fourth-quarter sales below forecasts late on Monday. Flavours and fragrances maker Givaudan slipped 3.7 percent after it posted a full-year net profit of 199 million Swiss francs ($185.3 million), while analysts in a Reuters poll had expected 205 million francs.
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