* FTSEurofirst 300 index rises 0.6 percent
* Miners up as gold hits record highs
* Porsche up on VW cash payment hopes
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - European shares closed at their
highest level in more than two years on Tuesday, boosted by
fresh corporate earnings reports and improved hopes that the
global economic recovery is sustainable.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed up 0.6 percent at 1,117.24 points, its highest
close since September 2008.
"European markets are holding up following on from last
week's positive news on U.S. quantitative easing and valuations
are still at acceptable levels," Lothar Mentel, chief investment
officer at Octopus Investments, said.
The STOXX Europe 600 <> index prices the one-year
forward forecast earnings of its constituency at about 10.7
times against a 10-year average of 13.43, Thomson Reuters
Datastream showed.
Miners were among the top performers as gold <XAU=> hit a
record high on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve easing plans
would boost demand for raw materials, while copper <MCU3=LX>
rose to its highest level since July 2008 on supply concerns.
Gold miners Petropavlovsk <POG.L> and Randgold Resources
<RRS.L> jumped 8.3 percent and 4.6 percent, while copper miner
Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> rose 3.1 percent.
Although miners led the markets higher technical indicators
suggested the market was in "overbought" territory, with the
relative strength index for the index at 71. Seventy and above
is considered "overbought".
"I expect a technical correction over the next few days.
There are various warning lamps flashing, though it probably
requires a trigger for it to happen, maybe a wobble from
Portugal and Ireland could send the market lower."
Sovereign debt concerns have continued to weigh on several
peripheral euro zone countries and the cost of protecting
Portuguese government debt against default rose to a record
intraday highs on Tuesday.
PORSCHE GAINS
Nevertheless carmakers were in demand with Porsche SE
<PSHG_p.DE> up 7.2 percent on hopes Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> would
pay cash for a remaining stake in Porsche's automobile
operations.
Strong corporate earnings news also helped boost market
sentiment.
Barclays <BARC.L> rose 4 percent after it said it has a
healthy capital position and sees bad debts falling by almost a
third this year. []
Luxury group Hermes <HRMS.PA> jumped 7.6 percent after it
raised its 2010 earnings targets again and is on track for its
best performance in 10 years. []
Adecco <ADEN.VX>, the world's biggest staffing group, gained
3.7 percent on forecast-beating third-quarter results.
[]
Not all corporate results were deemed positive, with
Carlsberg <CARLb.CO> slipping 5 percent after it warned of
rising input costs in 2011 and lost market share in Russia.
[]
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was 0.4 percent
higher, Germany's DAX <> was up 0.6 percent and France's
CAC 40 <> was 0.8 percent higher.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson)
