Safran posts nine-month revenue growth, Yara shares fall
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares swung sharply higher on Friday morning, taking back some of the previous session's losses, with oil producers and technology shares fronting the advance.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 4.5% to 215.65, after closing near five-year lows on Thursday.
"It seems as if the volatility we've seen of late will struggle to fade and it's also going to be difficult to call an end to these choppy market conditions," said Matt Buckland, trader at CMC Markets.
Technology companies were among the strongest performers on Friday as investors eyed some upbeat earnings from U.S. technology firms.
Shares of Alcatel-Lucent advanced 7.8% and shares of Infineon Technologies jumped 6.6%.
On Thursday, Advanced Micro Devices of the U.S. reported a narrower third-quarter loss of $67 million, or 11 cents a share.
The result exceeded analyst forecasts. IBM Corp. said Thursday that earnings grew 22% for the third quarter, in line with an earlier pre-announcement.
The technology sector has been under pressure in Europe of late, with investors fretting that customers will scale back demand in response to recent financial-sector turmoil.
Sentiment also turned more positive on oil producers Friday. The sector has suffered in recent weeks amid worries that demand will fall as economic growth slows.
Light sweet crude futures rose $1.98 to $71.83 a barrel, helping BP , up 4.8%, and Total , up 5.8%, to take back some recent losses.
On a national level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index ( jumped 3.7% to 4,002.62, the German DAX 30 index rose 2.9% to 4,753.48 and the French CAC-40 index climbed 4% to 3,309.56.
U.S. stocks shot dramatically higher in a late-session bounce back from the prior day's rout, with energy shares pacing the climb. See Thursday's U.S. Market Snapshot.
Elsewhere, shares in aircraft-equipment maker Safran
