European shares rose for a fifth straight session on Tuesday as banks gained after HSBC said loan impairment allowances for its U.S. consumer finance business fell in the third quarter, the first fall since 2006.
At 0946 GMT the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,012.66 points after touching 1,014.83, the highest level in more than two weeks.
The index, which jumped 2 percent in the previous session, is up 22 percent in 2009 and has surged 57 percent since hitting a record low in early March.
Banks were among the top gainers, with HSBC rising 3.2 percent after it said its underlying third quarter profits were "significantly ahead" of a year ago.
Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale and UBS were up 0.2 to 2 percent.
Barclays Plc, however, fell 2.3 percent. It said strong investment banking helped limit a fall in profit in the third quarter and it expects bad debts to peak earlier than it had previously expected.
European shares also got support from strong gains in the U.S. market on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average hitting a 13-month high after the Group of 20 pledged to keep aid flowing to the world economy.
"Another triple digit rally in the States has given a bullish tone to trading this morning," said Brian Myers, analyst at ODL Securities.
"There is feeling that confidence is returning as we head in to the Christmas period," he added.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 rose 0.2-0.3 percent.
COMMODITIES UNDER PRESSURE
Energy and mining shares came under pressure as commodity prices retreated after rising in the previous session.
Miners slipped as copper fell 0.7 percent, zinc was down 1.3 percent and nickel declined 2.2 percent. Anglo American, Antofagasta, Xstrata and Eurasian Natural Resources fell 0.8 to 1.7 percent.
Crude oil prices fell 0.3 percent as tropical storm Ida, which cut U.S. oil and gas supplies, was downgraded from a powerful hurricane and U.S. crude oil stockpiles were forecast to rise slightly. BG Group fell 0.3 percent, while Total was down 0.4 percent.
Vodafone led mobile telecommunications shares down and fell 2.5 percent. It reported in-line first-half results and an extension to its cost-cutting programme but analysts focused in on likely operating margin pressures.
"Despite this, margins (are) expected to deteriorate by 210 basis points compared to 180 basis points before. This reflects Indian pressures plus a likely increase in Vodafone's commercial activity in Europe," analysts at Cazenove said in a note.
TeliaSonera fell 1.6 percent, while Deutsche Telekom was down 0.3 percent.
In macro-economic news, French industrial output fell an unexpected 1.5 percent in September, but managed to rise 2.9 percent in the third quarter as a whole, national statistics office Insee said on Tuesday.
