* FTSEurofirst 300 gains 1.9 pct, highest close since Nov 10
* Miners, steel makers soar along with metal prices
* Volkswagen up 12 pct after Porsche lifts stake
* GDF Suez dips 5 pct as Russian gas supplies to France sink
By Blaise Robinson
PARIS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Tuesday for
the sixth straight session, as rallying metal prices and hopes
of big infrastructure spending boosted mining and steel shares
such as ArcelorMittal <MTP.PA>.
Utility group GDF Suez <GSZ.PA>, which said Russian gas
supplies to France plunged by 70 percent on Tuesday amid a
deepening price dispute between Russia and Ukraine, dropped 5
percent.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top European shares
ended 1.9 percent higher at 889.57 points, its highest closing
level since Nov 10.
"Bad news has already been priced in by the market, while
good news hasn't. All the stimulus plans and aggressive interest
rate cuts are just starting to have an impact on equities," said
Marc Touati, chief economist at Global Equities, in Paris.
"The flow of gloomy macro data will continue for a while,
but the U.S. economy should start to feel the effect of the
stimulus plan sometime in the spring or the summer, and
investors are now trying to anticipate that," Touati said.
ArcelorMittal surged 14 percent, Rio Tinto <RIO.L> soared 11
percent, Xstrata <XTA.L> rose 13 percent and Vallourec <VLPP.PA>
added 10 percent.
The DJ Stoxx basic resources index <.SXPP> plummeted 65
percent in 2008 --the most hit among all the DJ Stoxx industry
indexes-- as investors dumped cyclical stocks while the global
economy tipped into a sharp downturn.
But analysts said the sector could be one of the first to
rebound in 2009, helped by all the infrastructure expenses
announced by governments around the world to revive growth.
Volkswagen <VOWG.DE> soared 12 percent following news late
on Monday that Porsche <PSHG_p.DE> lifted its voting stake in
the carmaker to a majority.
Volkswagen was also helped by its U.S. December auto sales,
which were largely better than its peers'.
Other carmakers were on the rise, with Daimler <DAIGn.DE> up
3.3 percent. Renault <RENA.PA>, which said it has reached its
year-end target of slashing rising stocks of unsold vehicles
back to the levels it recorded at the end of 2007, gained 4.1
percent.
STOCKS RESILIENT TO GRIM DATA
Shares trimmed their gains in late trading after gloomy U.S.
manufacturing and housing data, but managed to remain in
positive territory. The FTSEurofirst 300 has gained 10.7 percent
over the past six sessions, its longest winning streak since
late October.
Data showed on Tuesday new orders received by U.S. factories
sank a much-greater-than-expected 4.6 percent in November, the
fourth straight monthly decline and a sign the sharp drop in
manufacturing is deepening the recession, a government report
showed on Tuesday.
On the housing front, data showed U.S. pending sales of
existing U.S. homes plunged to a seven-year low in November as
the recession kept potential house buyers on the sidelines.
"At the moment, investors view the glass as being half full.
Positive sentiment prevails after a very bad 2008," said
Hans-Juergen Delp, investment strategist at Commerzbank in
Frankfurt.
In Europe, a sharper than expected fall in euro zone
inflation to a 26-month low of 1.6 percent in December knocked
back the euro and further supported expectations for a European
Central Bank rate cut next week.
ECB rate cut expectations were also boosted by data showing
the euro zone private sector services economy shrank sharply in
December and firms cut more jobs than expected.
(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt;
editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
