* FTSEurofirst 300 little changed, off one-week high
* Miners among top gainers, financial shares fall
* BT shares jump as company beat expectations
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Atul Prakash
LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - European equties were little
changed in morning trade on Thursday after hitting a one-week
high early in the session, with weaker banks offsetting gains
made by miners on the back of firmer metals prices.
At 0944 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was almost flat at 1,049.28 points after rising
to 1,056.53, the highest since May 4.
The index, which rose 1.3 percent on Wednesday, has risen
8.5 percent so far this week and is on track to post its biggest
weekly surge since November 2008, boosted by the massive bailout
unveiled at the weekend to tackle the euro zone debt crisis.
"There is a general unease still about the containment of
the sovereign debt crisis despite the tremendous effort to
stabilise the euro and the whole problem," said Mike Lenhoff,
chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin.
Miners advanced as gold <XAU=> firmed to trade near record
highs and key base metals firmed. BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Anglo
American <AAL.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>,
Xstrata <XTA.L> and ENRC <ENRC.L> rose 0.2 to 3.9 percent.
Investors kept a close eye on euro zone debt problems after
Spain said on Wednesday it would slash civil service pay and cut
public jobs, while Portugal's finance minister told Reuters his
government had identified new austerity measures to reduce its
budget deficit.
"It's going to be a long, challenging and bumpy road in
order to stabilise the finances of many countries within the
euro zone, but it's absolutely necessary that they take those
first steps," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays
Wealth.
Strong company results, however, have been underpinning the
market, analysts said.
British telecoms provider BT <BT.L> rose 8.7 percent after
beating market expectations for its full year with a 2 percent
decline in revenues, and forecasting a return to growth in
2012/13. []
J Sainsbury <SBRY.L>, Britain's No.3 grocer, gained 2.4
percent. It beat forecasts with an 18 percent rise in full-year
profit as it gained customers with new stores and non-food
ranges, and said it could cope with a tough economic backdrop.
[]
"The results that we have been seeing from companies have
been very positive and are providing a driving force to equity
markets," Potts said.
"They (results) exceeded market expectations over the course
of the past three months and analysts have been predicting a far
more confident outlook for the rest of this year."
BANKS SLIP
Banks trimmed recent lofty gains, with Societe Generale
<SOGN.PA>, Credit Agricole <CAGR.PA>, Standard Chartered
<STAN.L>, HSBC <HSBA.L>, Barclays <BARC.L>, Lloyds <LLOY.L>,
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> and Natixis <CNAT.PA> down 0.2 to
2.7 percent.
Among individual movers, SAP AG <SAPG.DE> fell 2.6 percent
after the German software company offered to buy smaller U.S.
rival Sybase Inc <SY.N> for $5.8 billion. []
Prudential <PRU.L> was down 1.2 percent. UK regulators have
agreed in principle to Prudential's $35.5 billion purchase of
AIG's <AIG.N> Asian life insurance unit, sources familiar with
the situation said, and the British insurer hopes to price its
bumper rights issue within days. []
Telefonica <TEF.MC> was down 1.8 percent after posting
lower-than-expected first-quarter results. []
Insurer Old Mutual <OML.L>, however, gained 0.4 percent
after meeting forecasts with a 29 percent rise in first-quarter
sales, although it gave no comment on whether it had received an
offer for its majority stake in South African Nedbank <NEDJ.J>.
[]
Trading was subdued as markets in Austria, Denmark, Finland,
Norway, Sweden and Switzerland were closed for Ascension Day.
(Editing by Simon Jessop)
