European shares boosted by soothing earnings, SocGen and Total up

Reuters - UK Focus

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - European shares rose for a third consecutive session on Thursday, with some major companies such as France's second-biggest listed bank Societe Generale (Swiss: 519928.SW - news) and oil major Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) advancing after their results.

Eutelsat (Paris: FR0010221234 - news) rose nearly 5 percent, the top gainer in the pan-European STOXX 600 index, after the company predicted higher Internet and mobile satellite sales and announced plans to buy a Viasat (Frankfurt: 908189 - news) satellite.

France's Total was up 0.8 percent after the company reported better-than-expected fourth quarter net profits, thanks to cost savings that enabled it to raise its dividend, and said it was hunting opportunities to buy assets from struggling rivals after.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Societe Generale rose 3 percent after the bank reported a better-than-expected net income in the final three months of last year and said it would float a stake in its booming vehicle leasing unit ALD.

However, gains were limited by some poor updates.

Commerzbank (Xetra: CBK100 - news) fell 1 percent after the German lender said it needed to do more to get back to sustainable growth. Germany's second-largest lender behind Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) , however, beat quarterly profit forecasts.

Smith & Nephew (Frankfurt: 502816 - news) fell 4.8 percent after Europe's biggest artificial hip and knee maker reported a 7 percent drop in full-year trading profit, missing average forecasts, on tough market conditions in China and the Gulf.

The STOXX 600 index was up 0.5 percent by 0827 GMT after rising in the previous two straight sessions. (Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Catherine Evans)