Shares gain on earnings optimism, debt auctions eyed

LONDON: European shares rose to 11-week highs on Thursday as strong
U.S. corporate profits lifted sentiment, while signs of stress in the
European debt market kept the single currency trading just above a
two-year low.
Pressure also remains on the dollar after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
kept alive talk of more monetary easing in his latest remarks to the
U.S. Congress, though he played down the risks of a double-dip
recession.
"There have been some good company results, which
have lifted sentiment. But I don't think investors have been complacent
as the euro zone situation is still in the background," said Keith
Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
The FTSEurofirst
300 index of top European shares was up 0.3 percent at 1,056.80 points
and on track for a seventh straight week of gains.
The euro traded around $1.2308, up about 0.2 percent, above a two-year low of $1.2162 hit last week.
Debt
auctions later in the day by Spain and France promise to highlight the
growing tensions within the euro area, with French yields set to touch
record lows, while Spain's longer term borrowing costs hover near
unsustainably high rates.
Spain should receive some good news
later when the German parliament votes on the rescue programme for its
troubled banks, which should pave the way for a formal approval by euro
area finance ministers on Friday.
The deadly bombing in Syria
and an attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, which have plunged the
Middle East deeper into crisis, lifted Brent crude oil to a seven-week
high above $106 a barrel. - Reuters