* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.5 percent, third day of gains
* Commodity shares up as gold hits $1,000, crude above $69
* Financial stocks mixed, energy shares advance
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Atul Prakash
LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - European shares rose for a third
straight session on Tuesday to hover near recent 11-month highs,
boosted by stronger commodity prices on the back of gold rising
above $1,000 an ounce and crude trading over $69 a barrel.
At 0847 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was up 0.5 percent at 980.59 points. The index,
which slumped 45 percent in 2008, is up 17 percent this year and
has jumped 51 percent since falling to a record low in March.
European shares jumped on Monday, boosted by Cadbury
<CBRY.L> which surged more than 40 percent on a $16.7 billion
bid by North America's Kraft Foods <KFT.N>. Cadbury rejected the
offer, but Kraft Foods said it was intent on pursuing.
"With M&A back on the agenda, the markets have found a new
impetus," said John Murphy, analyst at ODL Securities.
"Whilst the markets have traded higher over the past few
months, the truest sign that the credit markets are unfreezing
will be the re-emergence of corporate activity," he added.
Mining shares were among top gainers on the index as spot
gold <XAU=> rose above $1,000 an ounce for the first time since
February, copper <MCU3> rose 0.6 percent and aluminium <MAL3>
advanced 0.8 percent.
BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Anglo American <AAL.L>, Antofagasta
<ANTO.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, Xstrata <XTA.L> and ENRC <ENRC.L>
rose 0.7-1.9 percent.
Energy shares tracked crude oil prices <CLc1>, which rose
1.6 percent. BP <BP.L>, BG Group <BG.L>, Tullow Oil <TLW.L>,
Repsol <REP.MC>, Total <TOTF.PA> and StatoilHydro <STL.OL> added
0.2-1.3 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index <>, Germany's
DAX <> and France's CAC 40 <> rose 0.4-0.6 percent.
FINANCIAL SHARES MIXED
Banks were mixed, with Standard Chartered <STAN.L>, Barclays
<BARC.L>, Lloyds <LLOY.L>, Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> and
Natixis <CNAT.PA> gaining 0.1 to 2.9 percent. But HSBC <HSBA.L>,
BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> and Credit
Agricole <CAGR.PA> fell 0.2-1.3 percent.
Some analysts said the equity market has rallied in the past
months and could not keep rising at the same pace.
"For the next month, we could still see quite good
macro-economic data, but just doing better-than-expected is not
good enough anymore to keep on stimulating the market. It's
getting more and more difficult to go further and further up,"
said Koen De Leus, economist at KBC Securities.
"You will have to surprise the market with even more
stronger figures."
In market news, Deutsche Telekom <DTEGn.DE> and France
Telecom <FTE.PA> have launched exclusive talks to merge their
British mobile units in a joint venture that would grab the top
spot in the cutthroat UK market. []
Deutsche Telekom was up 1.9 percent, while France Telecom
rose 2.8 percent.
British defence giant BAE Systems <BAES.L> is fighting a
decision by the United States army to award a multi-billion
dollar vehicle contract to a competitor, saying it did not judge
its proposals fairly. [] Its shares were flat.
Kingfisher <KGF.L> rose 2.4 percent after Europe's biggest
home improvement retailer said it expected to report an
underlying pretax profit of 285 million to ($550.4 million) to
290 million pounds for the six months to Aug. 1. []
(Editing by Rupert Winchester)
