Europe shares track Asia, US rally; defensives gain

European shares rose early on Monday to track gains on Wall Street and in Asia as investors hoped recent worldwide steps to stem the financial crisis and likely rate cuts in Europe this week would calm market nerves.

At 0816 GMT the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.5 percent higher at 933.05 points.

Defensive stocks in utilities and pharmaceuticals companies led the advance, with drugmaker Novartis, the biggest individual lift on the index, up 1.5 percent.

Banks rose, with Societe Generale adding 2.5 percent after reporting an in-line fall in profits and saying it was strong enough to weather the global financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank rose 5.2 percent and Credit Agricole added 1.4 percent.

HBOS added 1.7 percent after the Sunday Times newspaper said Lloyds TSB could face competition for its bid on HBOS from the founder of HBOS's Internet banking unit.

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are expected to lower interest rates this week, following recent rate cuts by China, India, Japan and the United States.

Major U.S. stocks indexes rose by 1.3 to 1.6 percent on Friday, while European shares registered a 2.8 percent gain in the previous session.

"You saw action from the Fed, action from the Bank of Japan action from other central banks around the word … so the expectation is high that the ECB will cut rates," said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, equity strategist at Postbank in Bonn, Germany.

"Everybody expects it," he added. "During the next months we expect more moves by the ECB, to go below 3 percent."