LONDON, Feb 14: European share prices moved further ahead on Thursday, shoring up gains from the previous session as they tracked US markets higher and took heart from some fair corporate results.

Solid results from the likes of Barclays bank served to reassure investors, who have become jittery recently that the financial meltdown at US energy giant Enron could spread fall-out throughout the banking sector.

London’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.8 per cent to 5,194.7 points, very close to its average level of the past three months, meaning that the market is trapped in a fairly narrow range.

In Paris, the CAC 40 index added 0.9 per cent to 4,405.1 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX index pushed on 0.5 per cent to 4,959.1 points.

Across the 12-nation euro-zone, the Euro Stoxx 50 index advanced 0.4 per cent to 3,586.8 points, while the euro itself was rangebound around $0.8715.

City analysts said European markets were quietly encouraged by a better week for US counterparts.

The Dow industrials rose another 1.3 per cent on Wednesday, and the Nasdaq managed a 1.4-per cent gain.

That helped the Tokyo market to a 1.1-per cent advance, and all eyes are now on key US industrial production data on Friday, which will indicate just how far down the road to recovery the world’s largest economy is.

Barclays stock rose two percent to 2,260 pence, dragging other banking stocks in its wake: HSBC was up 2.2 per cent to 805 pence and Royal Bank of Scotland rose 2.3 per cent to 1,805 pence. Lloyds TSB reports its results on Friday.

Oil stocks continued to cash in on higher crude prices, despite financial results that showed a steep slump in profitability in 2001. BP gained another 2.8 per cent to 568 pence, while TotalFinaElf edged up 0.4 per cent to 165 euros.

Elsewhere, BA rose 1.8 per cent to 203.25 pence a day after announcing a sweeping overhaul of its operations, complete with another 5,800 job losses.

Technology and media stocks meanwhile remained the weakest link, with few investors showing appetite for the sector — almost two years after the rot first set in for the so-called ‘new economy’.

On the negative side, what is really driving the market down is technology and we are still seeing corrections to those valuation, particularly in the likes of Reuters and Vodafone, said O’Sullivan.

Vodafone fell another two percent to 133 pence, while Reuters lost 1.4 per cent to 531.5 pence two days after releasing glum results of its own. —AFP