RTRS: Europe stocks hit day high, helped by Wall St, oils
LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - European shares extended gains in late trade on Tuesday to hit their day high, tracking advances on Wall Street and helped by a higher oil price.
At 1530 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.8 percent at 844.47 points, having just hit a day high of 845.29.
The index had fallen as far at 818.78 earlier in the day.
Oil stocks added most points to the benchmark, with BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gaining 3.5-5 percent as oil traded up nearly 1 percent at just above $55.40 a barrel.
U.S. stock indexes .SPX .DJI .IXIC were up 0.8-1.7 percent, boosted by stronger-than-expected results from computer maker Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).