RTRS: Asia stocks at 1-month high as bears squeezed
* FTSEurofirst 300 index up 0.2 pct
* UniCredit jumps on earnings, Insurers top sector
* UK jobless data weighs on British stocks
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
By Christoph Steitz
FRANKFURT, March 18 (Reuters) - European shares were slightly higher by mid-morning on Wednesday, lifted by financials, but gains were limited by UK jobless data showing that the number of jobless rose to more than 2 million.
At 1008 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares was up 0.2 percent at 717.08 points. The index lost 45 percent in 2008 and is down 13.8 percent so far this year.
Italian bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI) jumped 7.8 percent, after the company posted a 38 percent fall in 2008 net profit on Wednesday, ahead of analysts' forecasts [ID:nLI257710].
The DJ STOXX insurers index .SXIP was the top sectoral leader, up 2.3 percent while the DJ Stoxx banks index .SX7P was up 1.4 percent.
"Equity markets are trying to shrug off the uncertainty of the last months," market strategist Heino Ruland from Ruland Research said, adding that the strong boosts on Wall Street and Japan overnight had a positive effect on European stocks.
U.S. stocks soared on Tuesday as an unexpected leap in housing starts pushed Home Depot and other retailers higher [ID:nN17306121], while Japanese banking stocks rose on optimism over steps by the Bank of Japan to bolster the economy. [ID:nT3577]
In Europe, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Allianz (ALVG.DE) and Barclays (BARC.L) were all up between 2.6 and 3.8 percent.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was down 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI was up 1.2 percent and France's CAC 40 .FCHI was 0.7 percent higher.
Frankfurt-listed shares in Sun Microsystems (JAVA.F) (JAVA.O) rocketed 60 percent in Frankfurt floor trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM (IBM.N) is in talks to buy the company for at least $6.5 billion.
