Europe shares rise early, UCB zooms on drug approval

LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - European shares rose in early trade on Wednesday, led by Belgian drugmaker UCB (UCB.BR), which gained on approval for a key drug, as commodities tracked metal and oil prices higher and telecoms rose on merger talk.

At 0721 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,311.23 points.

UCB topped the leaderboard, soaring 26 percent after its Cimzia drug for Crohn's disease won U.S. regulatory approval.

Miners and energy stocks were the top weighted gainers on the index, as crude prices stayed around $118 a barrel and copper ticked up. Lonmin (LMI.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L) and Vedanta (VED.L) all rose more than 1.2 percent, while BP (BP.L) rose 0.6 percent and Total (TOTF.PA) gained 1.2 percent.

Telecoms group KPN (KPN.AS) rose 2.9 percent on a newspaper report that Spanish rival Telefonica (TEF.MC) was planning a bid for it.

Later in the session, the focus shifts to results from drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).

Stocks were also underpinned by the euro coming off after ECB governing council member Christian Noyer indicated that eurozone rates could move in either direction.

(Reporting by Sitaraman Shankar)