European shares rise led by miners, cars and banks

* Miners, carmakers lift European stock markets

* Goldman earnings, SIV rescue support banks

* Central banks tone down rate hike expectations

By Peter Starck

FRANKFURT, June 17 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Tuesday, led by Daimler (DAIGn.DE) after news that the German carmaker will resume share buybacks and on strength in miners such as Rio Tinto (RIO.L) amid takeover speculation.

Better than expected quarterly profits from Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and news that the U.S. investment bank has completed a long-awaited rescue of a $7 billion structured investment vehicle supported European banks, notably Barclays (BARC.L).

Stock markets also drew strength from remarks signalling that the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England were toning down expectations of aggressive monetary policy tightening to combat rising inflation.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares closed 0.5 percent higher at 1,268.90 points, wiping out the previous session's losses. The index is down 18.7 percent so far in 2008 but 5.8 percent above is mid-March year-low.

Investment strategists were divided on the outlook.

"There will be little upward pressure on equities in the dog days of summer, and I would expect us to end the year lower than where we are now," Seven Investment Management's Justin Urquhart Stewart said.

But Klaus Martini, global chief investment officer at Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) private asset management unit, saw scope for gains.

"There is potential in the stock markets once the financial crisis calms down and once we have more transparency on corporate earnings," he said, adding the DJ EuroSTOXX 50 index could rise some 12.5 percent on a 12-month horizon.

"It's hard to say exactly when the financial sector crisis will be over but already now you can do some wonderful bottom-fishing," Martini said.

"We are in for quite a rebound in bank shares overall," he said, though he did not say which specific stocks he favoured.

Barclays rose 3.5 percent, HBOS HBOS.L was up 3.4 percent, Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) gained 3.2 percent and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (RBS.L) added 2.7 percent each.