* FTSEurofirst 300 closes up 0.5 percent
* Nokia up on Texas Instruments cellphone chip sales
* Energy gains as crude rises
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - Shares in Nokia <NOK1V.HE> jumped
on Tuesday after U.S. chip maker Texas Instruments <TXN.N>
reported better than expected cellphone chip sales and energy
companies gained with the price of crude, pushing European
stocks higher.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed 0.5 percent higher at 869.56 points after choppy
trade between 875.75 and 865.53 earlier in the session.
The index is up around 34 percent for the year since hitting
a lifetime low in early March.
"It is a very quiet day on the market. Maybe this is the
tone of what we are going to be in for this summer ... I think
the market has come up as far as it is going to for a while ...
now I think investors are going to sit on their hands," said Jim
Wood-Smith, head of research at Williams de Broe.
Technology stocks added the most points to the index. Nokia
gained 3.7 percent as Texas Instruments raised its targets for
second-quarter earnings and revenue, signalling improving demand
in the chip market. []
"The implication is that Nokia, the large global handset
market bellwether, is seeing momentum towards volume recovery on
its own competitive merits," said CCS Insight analyst John
Jackson.
Alcatel-Lucent <ALUA.PA>, Ericsson <ERICb.ST> and Infineon
Technology <IFXGn.DE> were up 0.7-2.9 percent.
Energy stocks were also higher as crude <CLc1> rose 1.8
percent, snapping a two-day slide. BP <BP.L>, Tullow Oil <TLW.L>
and Total <TOTF.PA> were up 0.3-4 percent.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was down 0.01
percent, Germany's DAX <> was down 0.1 percent and
France's CAC 40 <> was up 0.2 percent.
BANKS MIXED
Banks were among the biggest movers, although stocks within
the sector were mixed. Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> gained 3.1
percent after it said it is to close all branches of its
Cheltenham & Gloucester unit as part of a shake-up of its
mortgage and loans operations that will cut upto 1,660 full-time
jobs. []
Banco Santander <SAN.MC>, BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA> and Credit
Suisse <CSGN.VX> were up 1.1-1.7 percent.
HSBC <HSBA.L> lost 1.1 percent as traders cited concerns
that a major stakeholder may need to place shares.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department said that 10 of the
nation's biggest banks had been cleared to pay back a combined
$68 billion of taxpayer money pumped into them last year to
combat the credit crisis. []
The DJ Banking Eurostoxx banking index <.SX7P> is up around
21 percent for the year following a 64.76 percent slump the
previous year.
On the downside, defensive stocks were out of favour. Food
retailer Carrefour <CARR.PA> was down 3.2 percent and British
American Tobacco <BATS.L> was 1.9 lower.
Earlier stocks pared losses after German industrial
production fell unexpectedly by 1.9 percent month-on-month in
April, hit by a sharp fall in capital goods output, the Economy
Ministry said. []
German exports resumed their slide in April and imports fell
even more sharply, tempering hopes that Europe's largest economy
will soon recover from its deepest recession since World War
Two. []
"Everything was struggling to go up today as optimistic talk
of recovery in the U.S. this summer was countered by dire export
numbers and an unexpected decline in industrial output in
Germany suggested that Europe's largest economy is unlikely to
recover any time soon," said Mic Mills, senior trader at ETX
Capital.
(Editing by David Cowell)
