* FTSEurofirst 300 rises 1.3 percent in early trade
* Barclays jumps back after reassuring comments
* RBS tumbles on news of massive losses
* Richemont's disappointing sales drag luxury stocks
By Blaise Robinson
PARIS, Jan 19 (Reuters) - European stocks rose Monday as
recently-hammered banks such as Barclays <BARC.L> bounced back,
buoyed by news of a fresh UK rescue plan for the ailing sector,
while higher metal prices helped lift mining shares.
But gains were limited by Richemont's <CFR.VX> disappointing
sales and downbeat view for the near future, which weighed on
the luxury sector. Shares of the Swiss group behind Cartier
watches and Mont-Blanc pens dropped 3.9 percent, while LVMH
<LVMH.PA> shed 1 percent and PPR <PRTP.PA> lost 2.7 percent.
"After Tiffany, Richemont's sales confirmed the drop in the
sector since September," said Catherine Rolland, analyst at
Kepler Capital Markets.
At 0921 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was up 1.3 percent at 814.22 points.
Barclays <BARC.L> jumped 15 percent, bouncing back from
Friday's late sell-off, after the bank said it expects to report
pretax profit for the year "well ahead" of analysts' estimates.
"Soothing words from Barclays, and further government
intervention within the banking system appear to have been taken
relatively well, but one thing we have learnt over the past 18
months is that sentiment can change within a heartbeat," said
Chris Hossain, senior manager at ODL Securities.
Other banks were on the rise, with UniCredit <CRDI.MI> up
1.4 percent and Banco Santander <SAN.MC> up 1 percent.
But Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> tumbled 23 percent after
the lender shocked the market by saying it made a loss of over
20 billion pounds ($30 billion) last year -- the biggest loss in
British corporate history -- including a huge goodwill hit on
its purchase of parts of ABN AMRO in 2007.
"The banking crisis is far from over and banks still need to
clean up their balance sheets once and for all," said Christian
Jimenez, president of Imene Investment partners, in Paris.
"With (U.S. President-elect Barak) Obama coming to power, I
hope to see stronger measures to force financial institutions to
get rid of all their shaky assets, and the sooner we do that the
better."
Miners rallied on Monday , with Anglo American <AAL.L> up
2.1 percent and Xstrata <XTA.L> up 4.4 percent.
Around Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index <> was up 1.9
percent, Germany's DAX index <> was up 1.6 percent, and
France's CAC 40 <> was up 1.5 percent.
After a brief tick up in the first few sessions of the year,
the FTSEurofirst 300 is now down 2.3 percent in 2009, following
a 45 percent plunge last year, hit by the global credit crisis
that tipped the world economy into a sharp downturn.
The DJ Stoxx banking index <.SX7P> has lost 10 percent so
far this year. It tumbled 65 percent in 2008, knocked down by
the financial crisis that began with U.S. mortgage defaults in
2007 and has plunged major economies into recession, reshaped
the banking landscape and taken entire countries to the brink of
bankruptcy.
U.S. markets will remain closed on Monday for a national
holiday.
(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash in London and Juliette
Rouillon in Paris; Editing by Sharon Lindores)
