Europe stocks hit day high, helped by Wall St, oils

European shares extended gains in late trade on Tuesday to hit their day high, tracking advances on Wall Street and helped by a higher oil price.

At 1530 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.8 percent at 844.47 points, having just hit a day high of 845.29.

The index had fallen as far at 818.78 earlier in the day.

Oil stocks added most points to the benchmark, with BP, Total and Shell gaining 3.5-5 percent as oil traded up nearly 1 percent at just above $55.40 a barrel.

U.S. stock indexes were up 0.8-1.7 percent, boosted by stronger-than-expected results from computer maker Hewlett-Packard.