Banks boost European shares; await BoE, ECB

                                
 * FTSEurofirst 300 index rises 0.6 percent
                                
 * Banks up; await ECB rate meeting news conference
                                
 * Maersk rises as lifts 2010 guidance
                                
 * For up-to-the minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
                                
By Joanne Frearson
                                
 LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Thursday
morning, with the banking sector higher ahead of the European
Central Bank's interest rate decision and its news conference
likely to focus on bank stress tests. 
                                
 Banking stocks featured among the top performers on
expectations the tests will not be as stringent as feared.
Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>, BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA> and
Barclays <BARC.L> rose 2.4-3.3 percent.
                                
 Also helping the banking sector was news Credit Suisse had
upgraded the sector to "benchmark" from "10 percent
underweight", citing a better macroeconomic environment,
attractive valuations and taxation and regulation plans being
watered down.     
                                
 By 0837 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3>
index of top shares was up 0.6 percent at 1,012.35 points.
                                
 The ECB will face pressure to say whether Europe-wide stress
tests on banks will be tough enough to convince markets of their
worth but is likely to offer little beyond soothing words.
[ID:nLDE6670DA]
                                
 "We have the ECB and bank stress tests coming up and
investors are buying on hope they will not come out with bad
news," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas
Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.
                                
 "When the market has been oversold and you're faced with an
event which you are not sure about it is wise to buy the market
as you could be sitting on a nice profit."
                                
 Meanwhile, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank
are both expected to keep interest rates at record lows, of 0.5
and 1 percent respectively, in announcements at 1100 and 1145
GMT respectively.
                                
 
                                
 MAERSK JUMPS
                                
 Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk soared 3.9 percent after it
upgraded its earnings guidance, saying its container shipping
business had rebounded faster than expected.
                                
Miners made ground, with Xstrata <XTA.L> leading the sector
higher, adding 3.3 percent, buoyed by an upgrade to "hold" from
"sell" by Panmure Gordon.
                                
 Technical charts showed there had been some support for the
Euro STOXX 50 <.STOXX50E>, the euro zone's blue-chip index, at
the 2,500 level. The index was up 0.5 percent to 2,648.31
points.
                                
 "But volumes are very low and (I) think it will run out of
steam at 2,750 if volumes remain thin," said Manoj Ladwa, senior
trader at ETX Capital. 
                                
 Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> index was up 1.1
percent, Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> was 0.4 percent higher and
France's CAC 40 <.FCHI> rose 0.9 percent.
                                
 The Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index
<.TRXFLDPIPU> was up 0.5 percent.
 (Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Michael Shields)