European shares close higher; financials advance

LONDON Aug 6 (Reuters) - European equities ended higher for the 14th session in 19 on Thursday, supported by a slew of soothing earnings results and encouraging macroeconomic data, with financial shares leading the advance.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares provisionally closed 0.4 percent higher at 938.56 points after trading in a wide range of 934.29-946.31 points.

The index is more than 45 percent higher since hitting a record low in early March, but is still down 43 percent from a multi-year peak hit in 2007.

Financial stocks raced higher, with HSBC (HSBA.L), Barclays (BARC.L), Lloyds (LLOY.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) surging 2.7-12.3 percent.

UK banks were also helped by the Bank of England's move to extend its quantitative easing programme.

"Over the last month, people have become more convinced that some sort of a recovery is on its way and a second wind has come into the market," said Andrew Bell, head of research at Rensburg Sheppards.

"I don't think that it's about to win a gold medal for a sprint, but at least the economy is off the injury list and shows signs of convalescing."

Data showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, a government report showed on Thursday, boosting views the labour market and the economy were stabilising. [ID:nN06313199]

Among decliners, Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) fell 0.6 percent after it reported further losses in the second-quarter and stopped short of saying it had turned a corner, although the operating result beat market forecasts. [ID:nL6511927]

Across Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index .FTSE, Germany's DAX index .GDAXI and France's CAC .FCHI were up 0.2-0.9 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash)