* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.5 pct
* Banks rebound from recent falls
* Nokia surges after strong Q4 sales and profits
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - European shares rose by midday on
Thursday, with financials boosted by U.S. President Barack
Obama's moderated tone on bank risk-taking, while cellphone
maker Nokia <NOK1V.HE> soared after strong quarterly earnings.
By 1157 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> rose
0.5 percent to 1,018.80 points, rebounding from a 0.9 percent
slide in the previous session.
The pledge by the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep interest
rates near zero for "an extended period" also helped sentiment.
Banks were among the biggest gainers in Europe as worries
eased over the White House's plan to curb risk-taking by
financial firms. In his speech to Congress, Obama reiterated the
need for tough new rules for the financial sector but said he
was "not interested in punishing banks".
Barclays <BARC.L>, HSBC <HSBA.L>, BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>,
Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> and Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> rose 0.5
to 2 percent.
Obama's comments also lifted U.S. stock index futures as
investors saw them as a slight retreat from fiery rhetoric when
he unveiled the plan last week. []
"He (Obama) held off from being as aggressive as he has been
towards Wall Street and he was aimed at giving policymakers a
bit of a talking to. The result of that was that the market was
a lot happier," said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT
Global.
The Fed offered a guardedly upbeat view of the U.S. economy
on Wednesday and renewed its pledge to keep interest rates near
zero despite the objection of one policy maker. []
Morrison said the market drew some support from the bullish
FOMC statement, but some worries lingered over the state of the
U.S. economy.
"There are still some real concerns. Some of the concerns
are that the FOMC made no mention whatsoever of the
deteriorating housing market and the stubbornly high
unemployment and these were missing compared to the previous
statements," he said.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index <> Germany's
DAX index <> and France's CAC 40 <> were up around
0.2 percent.
NOKIA HITS 3-MONTH HIGH
Among individual movers, Nokia <NOK1V.HE> rallied 11.9
percent, hitting a three-month high, after reporting
stronger-than-expected sales and profits in the fourth quarter,
powered by improving market share in smartphones.
[]
Sector peers Alcatel-Lucent <ALUA.PA>, Ericsson <ERICb.ST>
and Logitech <LOGN.VX> added 0.6 to 2.5 percent.
German chipmaker Infineon <IFXGn.DE> put on 4.4 percent
after U.S. asset manager BlackRock <BLK.N> increased its stake
to 5.05 percent.
Among other movers, Hennes & Mauritz <HMb.ST> surged 8.1
percent after the world's third-biggest clothing retailer posted
forecast-beating results and fuelled hopes a tentative economic
turnaround in Europe is finally starting to lift consumer
spending.
Within the sector, Debenhams <DEB.L>, Marks & Spencer
<MKS.L>, Next <NXT.L> and Intidex <ITX.MC> gained 1.1 to 3.1
percent.
Drugmakers were on the back foot, adding to earlier losses
as AstraZeneca <AZN.L> fell 3.2 percent after posting
fourth-quarter earnings below expectations, but sought to ease
pressure on its stock with plans to buy back $1.0 billion
dollars worth of shares in 2010. []
Novartis <NOVN.VX>, Roche <ROG.VX> and Sanofi-Aventis
<SASY.PA> shed 0.6 to 1.1 percent.
(Editing by David Holmes)
