* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.4 pct after Monday's 1.7 pct slide
* Burberry, LVMH, SKF up after strong results
* Speculation lingers that Greece will restructure debt
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Upbeat corporate results helped
European shares to rebound on Tuesday from hefty falls a day
earlier, led by strong sales figures from luxury goods groups.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed up 0.4 percent at 1,117.10 points, recouping some
losses after hitting a three-week closing low on Monday when
Standard & Poor cut its credit outlook on the United States to
negative.
The index gave back some gains in late trading as shares on
Wall Street slipped from earlier highs.
Robust quarterly earnings bolstered confidence in the
corporate outlook, with better-than-expected sales helping
luxury firms Burberry <BRBY.L> and LVMH <LVMH.PA> gain 6 and 5
percent.
Upbeat results from manufacturing bellwether SKF <SKFb.ST>
helped alleviate worries about the impact of rising raw material
prices on industrial firms' margins, with the world's top
bearings maker rising 6.4 percent to the top of the leaderboard.
"Global companies, particularly those who manufacture
things, are going to be reporting more profit and cash. There's
plenty of scope for exporting at current levels for the pound
and the U.S. dollar," said a London-based fund manager who has
around $120 million in assets under management.
Despite the gains in equities, some caution about the euro
zone's debt troubles prevailed in wider financial markets, with
growing talk that Greece would have to restructure its debt
lifting short-dated Greek bond yields.
The Greek banking index <.FTATBNK> rose 1.2 percent after
hefty falls in the previous session, though the index trades
around its lowest levels since early 1997.
UNDERLYING FUNDAMENTALS
Highlighting the underlying strength in the economy, the
euro zone's composite PMI, a broader measure of the private
sector often used as a guide to growth, beat forecasts in April,
in a sign that economic fundamentals could continue to support
corporate growth and share price gains in the medium-term.
Economic recovery has helped the FTSEurofirst 300 rise 73.2
percent since hitting a lifetime low in March 2009, but the
index is expected to tread water in the short-term as leading
indicators slow from their peaks and investors anticipate a
withdrawal of monetary stimulus in the United States.
Analysts said technical indicators pointed to a bout of
weakness for equity markets in the next few weeks, from which
the market could rebound significantly to make fresh highs.
"We are expecting an upward break above 3,100 (on the Euro
STOXX 50 index) in the coming weeks to next few months," said
Roelof-Jan Van den Akker, senior technical analyst at ING.
The euro zone's blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index <>
closed up 0.3 percent at 2,857.61 points.
Michael Gordon, chief investment officer for equities at BNP
Paribas Investment Partners, said he believed equities had
priced in many of the risks and would hand in 5 to 10 percent
returns in the next 12 months.
"Equities are up to speed with events ... There will be
fewer positive or negative surprises," said Gordon, who is
responsible for 50 billion euros' worth of investment.
(Editing by Will Waterman)
