European stocks rise early, miners boost
FRANKFURT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Tuesday, led by mining stocks, ahead of the release of U.S. macroeconomic data and more earnings results this week.
By 0715 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares was up 0.3 percent at 947.05 points. Europe's benchmark index has gained 14 percent in 2009, and is up 47 percent since reaching a record-low in early March.
"The market is in keeping a low profile at the moment," said Postbank equity strategist Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein.
"Trading today should be rather quiet as smaller companies are reporting while tomorrow and the day after will see a slew of earnings of European heavyweights. Later in the day U.S. data will come in -- which should not be too bad -- but it is not that sort of number that makes the market move in a big way," he added.
Miners gained, with Rio Tinto (RIO.L), BHP Billiton BLT.T and Anglo American (AAL.L) up 1.5 to 1.8 percent.
Rio Tinto said it had yet to be presented with any evidence to support the detention of four of its China-based staff on suspicions of stealing state secrets. [ID:nSYD540071]
On the downside, shares in Denmark's biggest financial group Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO) dropped 4.2 percent after it reported a bigger-than-forecast drop in second-quarter pretax profits. [ID:nDKT004549]
Shares in Adecco (ADEN.VX), the world's largest staffing company, fell 4.6 percent after the company missed forecasts with a second-quarter loss, also saying it was buying the UK's Spring Group to boost its professional staffing business. [ID:nLA210762]
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was up 0.4 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI was 0.4 percent higher and France's CAC 40 .FCHI was up 0.3 percent. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Atul Prakash)
