European blue-chips closed up yesterday after a volatile session, driven by good earnings news from Germany's Siemens and a brighter outlook from bellweather chemicals company BASF.
Europe's biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline lent support with gains of 2.5 per cent - up for the third straight session - on hopes for its experimental drugs ahead of next month's key research presentation.
But Britain's biggest biotechnology firm Celltech tumbled 19.4 per cent on news that Pfizer wanted to renegotiate a deal which would delay development of a drug for arthritis - viewed as Celltech's most valuable asset.
The FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended up 0.34 per cent at 935.38 points, down from the session high of 940.95 and below the year high of 945.63 set last Friday.
Volume was good on one of the busiest days of the third-quarter reporting season as investors lurched from optimism to pessimism.
"There's been some consolidation after some very good earnings results," said Klaus Wiener, chief strategist at AMB Generali Finanz. "People are asking if this economic upswing will last... the assessment is yes, for a few more quarters."
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.34 per cent to 2,636.14 points.
Traders marked down European equities on jitters about the strength of the US economic recovery after data showed the September trade deficit rose to $41.3 billion from $39.21 billion in August.
US Weekly jobless claims climbed to 366,000 from an upwardly revised 353,000 previously.
But strategists think there is still a lot of value in equity markets, which will be supported by stronger economic growth in the United States and Europe in coming months.
"On a three-month view, we think it would pay to be long of equities," said Wiener.
News that Germany had clambered out of recession with 0.2 per cent growth in the third-quarter and that the French economy clocked up 0.4 per cent growth will prompt further gains.
"Some of these companies are doing really well, and very strong corporate newsflow in Europe is the bit that had been missing so far," said Commerzbank strategist Rolf Elgeti.
Around Europe, the German Xetra Dax ended up 0.46 per cent at 3,765.59 points, France's CAC index and Britain's FTSE 100 were little changed from Wednesday.
Zurich's SMI was up one per cent higher after the world's second-largest luxury goods group, Swiss-based Richemont called an end to the sector downturn, despite a slump in first-half profits. Richemont was up 3.6 per cent.