London - The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index climbed to a seven-week high on Wednesday, helped by broker upgrades, and Switzerland's SMI equity index hit the 9 000 mark for the first time since late 2007.
Prudential rose 1.3 percent after Deutsche Bank increased its target price for the stock to 1 680 pence from 1 630 pence, Severn Trent was up 2.3 percent on a HSBC upgrade to “neutral” from “underweight” and AstraZeneca gained 1.7 percent after Natixis raised its price target.
At 15:12 SA time, the FTSEurofirst 300 of top European shares was up 0.27 percent at 1 363.12 points after rising to 1 365.25, the highest level since early October.
Germany's DAX rose 0.48 percent, building on gains on Tuesday when a survey showed German analyst and investor sentiment rose in November for the first time in almost a year, beating expectations and raising hopes of growth after Europe's biggest economy narrowly avoided recession.
The Swiss SMI index rose 0.2 percent to 8,988.84 points after reaching an intra-day high of 9,001.84 points.
It has gained nearly 10 percent so far this year, outpacing all European major stock indexes including Germany's DAX, down 0.7 percent over the same period.
“If you talk about flight to safety, the Swiss market is one of the main beneficiaries of that as it has got big defensive companies like Roche and Novartis. And the Swiss franc is a relatively stable currency,” Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets, said.
“In the short term this trend is likely to continue.”
Gains recorded by the broader market, however, were capped by a sharp decline in mining shares.
Rio Tinto fell 1.7 percent and BHP Billiton shed 1.4 percent after China's iron ore futures dropped nearly 5 percent to a record low on Wednesday, raising pressure on spot prices which have slumped to their weakest in more than five years, hurt by a supply glut.
“There's been no pause in the sell-off in commodity prices, which drags (down) the shares of all the basic resources companies,” Talence Gestion fund manager Alexandre Le Drogoff said.
The STOXX Europe Basic Resources index fell 1 percent, the worst sectoral performer in Europe.
Among other movers, Areva tumbled 15.9 percent after suspending its 2015 and 2016 financial targets, blaming delays in a Finnish atomic project, the slow restart of Japan's reactors and a lacklustre nuclear market.
UK testing firm Intertek featured among the main losers, down 7.5 percent after a disappointing trading update, while mid-cap firm ICAP fell 8.7 percent after the world's largest interdealer broker reported a 38 percent fall in first-half profit and gave a cautious outlook. - Reuters