European shares edge higher; miners, Aegon gain

                                
 * FTSEurofirst 300 rises 0.1 pct
                                
 * Carlsberg up after earnings beat forecast 
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
                                
 
                                
 By Brian Gorman
                                
 LONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - European shares edged up on
Tuesday, buoyed by miners as metals prices rose on a softer
dollar, and insurer Aegon <AEGN.AS> after it said it would repay
state aid.
                                
 At 0825 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top
European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,047.16 points, having
ended flat on Monday.
                                
 The European benchmark soared 62 percent between hitting a
lifetime in March, 2009, and the end of the year. But the rally
has stalled, and it is up only 0.1 percent in 2010, partly due
to worries about the strength of the recovery.
                                
 Miners rose, including Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Eurasian
Natural Resources Corp.<ENRC.L>, Lonmin <LMI.L> and Xstrata
<XTA.L>, up between 0.7 and 1.2 percent.
                                
 Kazakhmys rose 1.6 percent after BofA Merrill Lynch upgraded
it to "neutral". 
                                
 However, analysts pointed to low trading volumes for shares
and said the market continued to lack a clear direction.
                                
 "We wouldn't expect markets to make too much headway
dramatically in either direction," said Graham Secker, European
equity strategist at Morgan Stanley.
                                
 "We're in a holding pattern until we get a breakout in the
economic data."
                                
 Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE>, Germany's DAX
<.GDAXI> and France's CAC40 <.FCHI> rose between 0.5 and 0.6
percent.
                                
 The Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index
<.TRXFLDPIPU> rose 0.5 percent. 
                                
 Spain's IBEX <.IBEX> fell 0.5 percent, as the country looked
to sell 4.5-5.5 billion euros of 12- and 18-month paper at
auctions on Tuesday.
                                
 
                                
 CARLSBERG RISES
                                
 Carlsberg <CARLb.CO> rose 2.1 percent after the brewer
posted a rise in second-quarter operating profit, beating
forecasts, and raised its 2010 outlook due to a stronger Russian
market and better rouble exchange rate.
                                
 Aegon rose 4.8 percent after the insurer said it will pay
back 500 million euros ($640.7 million) of state aid and kept
open the option of issuing shares to pay down the remaining 1.5
billion euros.
                                
 Gas Natural <GAS.MC> slid 2.6 percent, after an arbitration
court rules in favour of Algeria's Sonatrach on a three-year
battle over prices.
                                
 Key data due later includes U.S. housing figures, giving an
indication of the strength of the economic recovery, which has
been called into doubt recently by labour market and other data.
 (Editing by Louise Heavens)