Friday October 16, 08:32 AM
European shares rise early, banks, commods gain
LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - European shares were higher in early trade on Friday, with banks and energy stocks the biggest gainers on renewed growth optimism after strong results from IBM (NYSE: IBM
- news) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) .
Investors also awaited earnings news from Bank of America (NYSE: IKJ - news) and U.S. conglomerate General Electric (NYSE: GE - news) .
By 0715 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.6 percent at 1,023.18 points.
The FTSEurofirst 300 has surged 58 percent since reaching a record low in early March, but is still down 38 percent from a multi-year peak reached in mid-2007.
'General Electric figures are seen better. But, in the banking sector there is a division between the investment and the retail banking sides,' said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
'As far as the investment banking side has been concerned these have been very good figures, but not sure if they are going to be repeated and on the retail side it is going to get weaker,' he said.
Banks added the most points to the index. Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) , Banco Santander (Madrid: BSCH.MC - news) and Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) were up 0.9 to 3.8 percent.
Energy shares were in the spotlight after oil gained ground for a seventh session and hit a one-year high above $78 a barrel. BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) , BP, Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS - news) and Total (FP.NX - news) gained 1.2 to 2.1 percent.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index was up 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX (Xetra: news) was 0.5 percent higher and France's CAC 40 (Paris: news) rose 0.3 percent.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson) Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS/OPEN
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