European shares leapt to fresh one-month highs yesterday afternoon, cheered by solid outlooks from world tech leaders Nokia and International Business Machines and with Wall Street also rallying.
But shares in Novartis, Europe's third-biggest drug company, fell 4.4 per cent as quarterly sales slipped due to a strong Swiss franc.
Europe's technology sector soared over 11 per cent as leader Nokia gained nine per cent after the world's biggest handset maker posted third-quarter profits at the high end of expectations and forecast a steady fourth quarter.
"There were no major surprises in the network division's results, and margins in the mobile phone segment were excellent and I think there is room for further upside in the fourth quarter," said Thomas Langer, an analyst at WestLB Panmure.
The news also boosted sector peers Ericsson by 13 per cent and Alcatel by 15 per cent.
Insurers were also strong, responding to the broader market gains and easing concerns over sector solvency.
By 1331 GMT, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index was up 3.6 per cent at 917 points.
The benchmark is up about 13 per cent since it began to rally off last week's five-and-a-half-year lows as earnings reports produced some bright spots while economic data has been relatively steady.
The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 4.3 per cent to 2,550 points.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index was 0.23 per cent firmer while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 3.3 per cent.
IBM helped to calm jitters after chip giant Intel's gloomy outlook triggered widespread selling on Wednesday.
"Sentiment in techs is buoyant after IBM's results. It signals a turning point for the sector as investors believe that Europe followed the U.S. into recession within six months and the recovery lag time will also be about six months," said one technology analyst in London.
Attention now turns to software bellwether Microsoft, which reports later in the day.
On the economic front, data out of the U.S. was mixed. On the negative side U.S. jobless claims rose by 22,000 last week as the struggle to find work becomes bleaker, but U.S. housing starts logged their biggest gains in more than seven years in September.
U.S. industrial output fell in September for the second month in a row, underscoring the fragility of the manufacturing sector in the uneven U.S. recovery.