Euro Shares Rise to Four-Week Closing High

European shares rose for the fourth session in five on Monday, with Barclays leading banks up and energy companies reversing earlier losses as crude prices gained more than 3 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 0.6 percent to close provisionally at 831.46 points, its highest close since Jan.13.

The index is now virtually flat this year after plunging 45 percent in 2008 due to a financial sector crisis and the prospect of a global recession.

Banks rose, supported by better-than-expected results at Barclays, which rose 10.9 percent after posting a 6.1 billion pound ($9 billion) profit and saying credit market losses were waning.

Other banks on the rise included Deutsche Bank up 6.2 percent, Unicredit up 5.1 percent and Commerzbank, up 8.5 percent.

"Fundamentally the market is positioning itself for a rally," said Darren Winder, head of macro and strategy research at Cazenove, in London.

"We're halfway through the recession, and we're on very low multiples." He added: "Equities are very attractive and will be materially higher in 12 months' time than they are now."

Energy shares pared losses from earlier in the session as crude prices rose more than 3 percent. Statoil was up 2.4 percent. ENI rose 0.7 percent.

Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 rose between 0.4 and 0.5 percent.

US shares were mixed around the time European bourses were closing.

The Dow Jones was flat, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1 percent.

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