By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - European shares edged up on Thursday after hitting 17-month closing highs a day earlier, with gains in drugmakers offsetting weaker banks, while Adidas rose after Nike's forecast-beating results.
By 1202 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,071.91 points, having ended 0.9 percent higher in the previous session --- its highest close since early October 2008.
The European benchmark index is up by around 66 percent from its lifetime low hit in March last year and has gained 2.4 percent so far in 2010.
'The market looks quite overbought on a short-term basis but the pull back that investors have been looking for hasn't really materialised,' said Nick Serff, markets strategist at City Index.
Pharmaceutical shares were higher. GlaxoSmithKline gained 2.7 percent after Novartis handed back U.S. rights to a drug widely thought to be a generic copy of Glaxo's blockbuster Advair, reducing the threat of cheap copies of the lung drug in the company's biggest market.
Novartis was up 0.1 percent, while AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis and Roche rose 0.5 to 0.7 percent.
Banks reversed the previous session's hefty gains, with Barclays, HSBC, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank off 0.4 to 1.2 percent.
Some lingering concerns over the debt situation in Greece weighed on investor sentiment. Greek banks lost 5.1 percent, while National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank fell 4.1 to 6.3 percent.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou urged the European Union on Thursday to make Athens a clear offer of support to resolve its debt problems at a summit in Brussels next week.
Greece denied a news report that it will resort to the IMF in early April if the European Union does not offer a concrete support plan at an EU summit later this month.
ADIDAS RISES
Among individual gainers, sports gear maker Adidas added 3.4 percent after peer Nike beat Wall Street expectations in its third quarter on Wednesday.
Gas producer BG Group rose 2.2 percent on market talk of Exxon Mobil's interest in the company, traders said.
BG Group declined to comment on the talk. Exxon was not immediately available for comments.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC40 were flat.
(Editing by Antonia van de Velde) Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS ============================================================= For rolling updates on what is moving European shares please click on ============================================================= For pan-Europeanmarket data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide................... FTSEurofirst 300 index.............................. DJ STOXX index...................................... Top 10 STOXX sectors........................... Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors...................... Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors................... Top 25 European pct gainers....................... Top 25 European pct losers........................ Main stock markets: Dow Jones............... Wall Street report ..... Nikkei 225............. Tokyo report............ FTSE 100............... London report........... Xetra DAX............. Frankfurt market stories CAC-40................. Paris market stories... World Indices...................................... Reuters survey of world bourse outlook.......... Western European IPO diary........................... European Asset Allocation......................... Reuters News at a Glance: Equities............... Main currency report:............................... Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS/ =2 (harpreet.bhal@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 4533; Reuters Messaging: harpreet.bhal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - European shares edged up on Thursday after hitting 17-month closing highs a day earlier, with gains in drugmakers offsetting weaker banks, while Adidas rose after Nike's forecast-beating results.
By 1202 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,071.91 points, having ended 0.9 percent higher in the previous session --- its highest close since early October 2008.
The European benchmark index is up by around 66 percent from its lifetime low hit in March last year and has gained 2.4 percent so far in 2010.
'The market looks quite overbought on a short-term basis but the pull back that investors have been looking for hasn't really materialised,' said Nick Serff, markets strategist at City Index.
Pharmaceutical shares were higher. GlaxoSmithKline gained 2.7 percent after Novartis handed back U.S. rights to a drug widely thought to be a generic copy of Glaxo's blockbuster Advair, reducing the threat of cheap copies of the lung drug in the company's biggest market.
Novartis was up 0.1 percent, while AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis and Roche rose 0.5 to 0.7 percent.
Banks reversed the previous session's hefty gains, with Barclays, HSBC, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank off 0.4 to 1.2 percent.
Some lingering concerns over the debt situation in Greece weighed on investor sentiment. Greek banks lost 5.1 percent, while National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank fell 4.1 to 6.3 percent.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou urged the European Union on Thursday to make Athens a clear offer of support to resolve its debt problems at a summit in Brussels next week.
Greece denied a news report that it will resort to the IMF in early April if the European Union does not offer a concrete support plan at an EU summit later this month.
ADIDAS RISES
Among individual gainers, sports gear maker Adidas added 3.4 percent after peer Nike beat Wall Street expectations in its third quarter on Wednesday.
Gas producer BG Group rose 2.2 percent on market talk of Exxon Mobil's interest in the company, traders said.
BG Group declined to comment on the talk. Exxon was not immediately available for comments.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC40 were flat.
(Editing by Antonia van de Velde) Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS ============================================================= For rolling updates on what is moving European shares please click on ============================================================= For pan-Europeanmarket data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide................... FTSEurofirst 300 index.............................. DJ STOXX index...................................... Top 10 STOXX sectors........................... Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors...................... Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors................... Top 25 European pct gainers....................... Top 25 European pct losers........................ Main stock markets: Dow Jones............... Wall Street report ..... Nikkei 225............. Tokyo report............ FTSE 100............... London report........... Xetra DAX............. Frankfurt market stories CAC-40................. Paris market stories... World Indices...................................... Reuters survey of world bourse outlook.......... Western European IPO diary........................... European Asset Allocation......................... Reuters News at a Glance: Equities............... Main currency report:............................... Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS/ =2 (harpreet.bhal@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 4533; Reuters Messaging: harpreet.bhal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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