* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.1 pct in early trade
* Banks gain ahead of results from U.S. peer Goldman Sachs
* Technology firms fall after Apple, IBM results
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Tuesday,
with gains in financials ahead of results from Goldman Sachs
<GS.N> more than offsetting weak technology stocks on downbeat
earnings from Apple <AAPL.O> and falls in oil majors.
By 0825 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <>
index of top shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,089.27 points, after
closing on Monday at its highest level in nearly six months.
Financials were among the biggest gainers as investors
awaited results from U.S. peers including Goldman Sachs and Bank
of America <BAC.N> for evidence on the pace of recovery in the
banking sector.
Societe Generale <SOGN.PA>, Barclays <BARC.L> and Credit
Suisse <CSGN.VX> added 1.2 percent to 1.8 percent.
"Investors will accept the slowing in the rate of earnings
recovery in the financials. I don't think there should be a huge
surprise if we see some impact on the top line as long as
margins are holding up," said Bernard McAlinden, investment
strategist at NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin.
"But I don't think the market will get the same lift from
the earnings season as it did in previous quarters."
Oil majors fell, with the STOXX Europe 600 oil and gas index
<.SXEP> down 0.6 percent, tracking falls in crude prices <CLc1>
after the dollar rebounded on profit taking and after Washington
stressed its desire for a strong dollar.
Growing speculation in recent weeks of further quantitative
easing measures in the U.S. have put pressure on the dollar,
resulting in a boost to commodity prices and commodity-related
stocks, with mining shares <.SXPP> up 5.5 percent this month,
against a 2.6 percent gain on the FTSEurofirst 300 index.
But analysts said uncertainty over how much the U.S. Federal
Reserve will inject through purchases of government securities
could cause choppiness in the equity market.
"Having priced in QE, markets are wondering whether they
have over-anticipated the extent of it. If the only thing that
is tempering the market's expectation of the amount of QE is
better-than-expected economic data then that's still good news,"
McAlinden said.
"The most important thing is the economic data, because
nobody even knows if QE will work."
APPLE PRESSURES TECHS
Technology firms in Europe were also lower, after U.S. peer
Apple <AAPL.O> posted disappointing sales of its iPad tablet
computer and IBM <IBM.N> reported a fall in new technology
services deals. [] []
ARM Holdings <ARM.L>, Capgemini and Infineon <IFXGn.DE> fell
0.8 percent to 2.4 percent.
"It looks as if Apple has a bottleneck problem. It simply
can't produce enough. IBM, in contrast, didn't deliver on the
services side. No surprise that European techs are down," a
Frankfurt-based trader said.
On the upside, SKF <SKFb.ST> surged 9.7 percent as the
world's biggest bearings maker raised its financial goals after
unveiling forecast-beating quarterly earnings and a $1 billion
U.S. acquisition. []
The results lifted shares in industrial peers Atlas Copco
<ATCOa.ST>, Sandvik <SAND.ST> and Alfa Laval <ALFA.ST>, which
rose 1.8 percent to 3.8 percent.
(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz and Harro ten Wolde
in Frankfurt; editing by David Hulmes)
