* FTSEurofirst 300 index gain 1.4 percent
* Carmakers jump on General Motors debut
* Banks gain on recovery hopes, Ireland
* For up-to-the minute market news, click on []
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Thursday
on expectations Ireland's troubled banking sector would receive
help from the IMF and EU, while carmakers were boosted after
General Motors <GM.N> surged in its return to the U.S. market.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed 1.4 percent higher at 1,108.12 points, adding to
Wednesday's gains to turn the index positive for the week, after
hefty falls on Tuesday.
"Ireland had been the cause of the sell-off this week and
with the country keen to talk to the IMF/EU, this has calmed
everyone's jitters," Mark Priest, senior equities trader at ETX
Capital, said.
Investor nerves were soothed after Ireland's central bank
Governor Patrick Honohan said he expected Dublin's struggling
banking sector to receive tens of billions of euros in loans
from European partners and the IMF. []
"If everything is going to be stable and they are going to
throw money at the problem, then there is no reason why these
markets can't rally."
Also helping to ease concerns over euro zone sovereign debt
was news that Spain had drawn solid demand for long-term bonds.
[]
Banking stocks which are sensitive to changes in the
economic environment were in demand on the recovery hopes.
Bank of Ireland <BKIR.I> rose 7.5 percent, while LLoyds
Banking Group <LLOY.L>, KBC Bank <KBC.BR> and Royal Bank of
Scotland <RBS.L>, which all have exposure to Irish residential
mortgage loans, gained 0.7 to 2.1 percent.
Mining stocks featured among the top performer, tracking
higher metal prices which were also buoyed by the Irish news.
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation <ENRC.L>, Rio Tinto
<RIO.L> and Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> gained 2.4 to 3.2 percent.
The Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index
<.TRXFLDPIPU> rose 2.1 percent.
CARMAKERS JUMP
Elsewhere, carmakers were in demand as General Motors []
shares surged in their trading debut of its blockbuster initial
public offering, the biggest in U.S. history.
Peugeot <PEUP.PA>, Renault <RENA.PA>, Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE>
and BMW <BMWG.DE> were 2.8 to 3.7 percent higher.
Thomson Reuters StarMine one-year forward forecast earnings
growth data for the STOXX Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts <.SXAP>
was high at 42.2 percent, compared with the overall STOXX Europe
600 <> index at 17.4 percent.
Looking at individual stocks, SABMiller <SAB.L> gained 5.1
percent after forecast beating first-half earnings.
[]
"We see growth coming back, monetary policy staying loose
for a longer period, and on top of that we're getting good
earnings. You can add to that M&A activity which we think will
be a major driver for stocks in the next couple of months," said
Franz Wenzel, strategist at AXA Investment Managers, in Paris.
The markets also received a boost midafternoon after
November factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region grew
more than expected and U.S. leading indicators for October
signalled a pick-up in activity.
The technical picture looked positive. The Euro STOXX 50
<>, the euro zone's blue-chip index, gained 1.9 percent
to 2,855.23 points, moving back above a key Fibonacci level, the
38.2 percent retracement of the index's drop from a 2007 high to
a 2009 low.
The index's next resistance level looms at around 2,900
points, the index's six-month high reached last week.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was 1.3 percent
higher, while Germany's DAX <> and France's CAC 40 <>
both gained 2 percent.
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson)
