Europe shares rally; highest close since Nov 2008

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - European equities hit their highest closing level in nearly nine months on Thursday and ended firmer for a 12th session in 14, as encouraging earnings results and economic data boosted investor morale.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares provisionally finished 2.3 percent higher at 931.72 points, the highest closing level since early November last year. The benchmark index, now up 44 percent since its lifetime low in March, has surged about 14 percent over the past three weeks, but is still down around 43 percent from its multi-year peak touched in mid-2007.

Financial stocks were among top gainers, with HSBC (HSBA.L), Barclays (BARC.L), Lloyds (LLOY.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) and Natixis (CNAT.PA) rising between 1 percent and 16.5 percent.

"Increasingly it feels like the time is not right to worry about this strength running out of steam just yet," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

British telecoms group BT (BT.L) jumped 12.6 percent after it posted a better-than-expected 3 percent fall in first-quarter adjusted core earnings and said it had made a good start to its cost cutting programme.

Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index .FTSE, Germany's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC 40 .FCHI were up 1.7-2.1 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash)