European shares extend gains on Spanish auction

European shares extended their gains on Thursday morning following results of the Spanish bond auction, with banks featuring among the top risers.

By 0850 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.6 percent at 1,045.04 points, after falling to as low as 1,034.74 earlier. Spain's IBEX index was up 0.9 percent. Banco Santander gained 1.5 percent and Societe Generale up 1.9 percent.

Spain said it has sold 3.0 billion euros worth of 10-year, 4.0 percent coupon bonds and 479 million euros worth of 30-year, 4.7 percent coupon bonds. The Treasury had expected to sell between 2.5 and 3.5 billion euros of the debt.

"It seems that demand was strong. That's reassuring" a Paris-based trader said.