Europe shares turn positive; banks, drugmakers gain

Published: 15 Jul 2009 23:36:53 PST

LONDON, July 16 - European shares turned positive on Thursday, as banks extended recent gains and Novartis led drugmakers higher.

At 0728 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.3 percent at 866.03 points, reversing an earlier fall that took the index as low as 860.40. Swiss drugmaker Novartis rose 1.6 percent after raising its full-year forecast for drug sales, after second-quarter net profit met expectations.

AstraZeneca and Roche were up 0.6 and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Among banks, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Societe Generale and UniCredit were up between 0.7 and 2.4 percent.