European shares advance in early trading

By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
Last update: 3:51 a.m. EDT July 9, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) - European shares gained on Wednesday, continuing a week of see-saw action for equity markets, with financials recouping a bit to lead the advance.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index climbed 0.9% to 281.53 as shares in British lender Royal Bank of Scotland rose 4% and shares in French bank Credit Agricole climbed 3.6%.
European closed with sharp losses on Tuesday amid further worries about the financial sector's health and how slowing economic growth will affect company profits.
Results from U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. late Tuesday went some way to allaying fears on earnings progress, after the firm's second-quarter profit decline wasn't as bad as Wall Street had expected, thanks to price hikes and increased demand. See full story.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve offered a line to the battered financial sector on Tuesday, helping U.S. stocks to close decisively higher. See Tuesday's Market Snapshot.
On a national level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.6% to 5,471.60, the German DAX 30 index advanced 0.6% to 6,344.28 and the French CAC-40 index rose 0.7% to 4,305.86.
Crude prices ticked higher again in electronic trading on Wednesday, with the contract up $1.20 at $137.25.
Still, oil prices stayed off recent highs of more than $145 a barrel and oil-price-sensitive firms such as automakers and airlines managed to move higher on Wednesday.
Shares in Fiat rose 1.2%.

Shares in the London Stock Exchange also rebounded a bit from recent losses on Wednesday, moving up 6%.
The exchange said Wednesday that revenue grew 8% in the first quarter to 178 million pounds and that while market conditions are likely to remain uncertain, the issuer market remains active and its integration of Borsa Italiana is on track.
Advertising giant WPP fell 2.5%.
The company will offer 173 pence in cash plus 0.1889 share to buy media firm Taylor Nelson Sofres , valuing TNS at 1.1 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) in total.
TNS has already agreed to merge with Germany's GfK. WPP said its offer provides "superior value and greater certainty" than the proposed TNS-GfK merger. Taylor Nelson Sofres shares rose 4.8% to 260 pence a share, while GfK shares edged up 0.6%. End of Story
Sarah Turner is a markets reporter for MarketWatch in London.