European shares rise led by Pandora, Credit Suisse; Athens outperform

By Atul Prakash

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares advanced on Tuesday, with Danish jewellery maker Pandora surging after strong results and bank Credit Suisse gaining after a smaller than expected first quarter loss.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 1.3 percent by 1008 GMT, while Greek shares rose 2.5 percent after euro zone finance ministers offered to grant Greece some debt relief.

Eearnings reports set the tone of the market, with Pandora up 9.9 percent after reporting a bigger than expected rise in first-quarter operating profit on strong sales growth and raising its full-year forecast.

Credit Suisse was up 5.7 percent. Although it saw tough market conditions continuing at least through the second quarter, it posted a lower than expected loss of 302 million Swiss francs ($311 million) for the first quarter.

"This was easily the most shorted name heading into numbers and the market was fearing capital may have moved materially in the wrong direction. The fact that it was flat ... means a classic 'not as bad as feared'," a trader said.

British outsourcing group Capita rose 5.7 percent after saying it was increasingly confident it would grow organic revenue by at least 4 percent this year.

The first quarter earnings season is entering into its last phase. According to Thomson Reuters StarMine, nearly 70 percent European companies have announced results so far, of which 60 percent have met or beaten analysts' forecasts.

On the downside, France's Natixis fell 6.8 percent after saying it was looking at ways to boost efficiency as investment banking weakness led to a 30 percent fall in first-quarter net income.

German industrial group Thyssenkrupp fell 2.5 percent after cutting its full-year forecasts on a drop in prices for materials including steel that it said was sharper and longer-lasting than it had expected.

(Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)