* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.6 percent
* International Power ahead on takeover talk
* For up-to-the-minute stocks news, click on []
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - European shares rose in early
trade on Monday, recovering some of Friday's losses, with miners
gaining on higher metals prices.
At 0937 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was up 0.6 percent at 1,058.15 points.
Miners were among early gainers, as copper rose on hope that
strong Chinese demand could cut inventories.
Precious metals were also higher. Platinum and palladium
prices hit fresh multi-month highs on Monday, buoyed by strong
investor interest for new exchange-traded funds, while risk
aversion supported gold. []
Anglo American <AAL.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Vedanta
<VED.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> rose between 0.9 and 1.8 percent.
On Friday, the index fell 1.1 percent, but is still up more
than 63 percent from its lifetime low of March 9, as several
major economies have emerged from recession.
Wall Street will be closed on Monday for a holiday.
Companies reporting earnings later in the week include
Citigroup <C.N> and Bank of America <BAC.N>.
"There's confidence the banking results this week will be
strong, in investment banking," said Justin Urquhart Stewart,
director at Seven Investment Management.
"There's enough momentum for the rally to continue, but
that's the short term. The market must have a correction at some
stage, perhaps when stimulus packages are withdrawn around the
globe."
However, the heavyweight banking sector, which fell on
Friday after disappointing results at JPMorgan <JPM.N>, gave up
most of its early gains.
Greek banks were the biggest fallers in the sector on
continued worries about the country's economic position.
Alpha Bank <ACBr.AT>, Bank of Piraeus <BOPr.AT> and EFG
Eurobank <EFGr.AT> fell between 4.9 and 5.7 percent.
Those on the rise included BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, Barclays
<BARC.L> and Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>, up between 0.5 and
2.8 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <>, France's CAC 40
<> and Germany's DAX <> were up between 0.4 and 0.5
percent.
UTILITIES GAIN
Utilities moved higher, on talk of consolidation in the
sector.
International Power <IPR.L> rose 4.7 percent following
weekend reports that French utility GDF Suez <GSZ.PA>, up 1.2
percent, will make a takeover bid. Both companies declined to
comment. []
Others in the sector to gain included E.ON <EONGn.DE> and
Veolia <VIE.PA>, both up 0.7 percent.
Among individual movers, Novartis <NOVN.VX> gained 1.9
percent after BofA Merrill Lynch upgraded the pharmaceuticals
giant to "buy" from "neutral".
Cosmetics major L'Oreal <OREP.PA> rose 1.8 percent after
Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the stock to "buy" from
"hold".
Cadbury <CBRY.L> rose 1.5 percent, in anticipation of a
higher bid from KraftFoods <KFT.N>. []
Supermarket group Morrison <MRW.L> was up 1 percent, ahead of
a trading update on Thursday. Rival Tesco <TSCO.L> was up 1.4
percent.
(Editing by David Cowell)
