BP shares up, Tullow oil also higher; EasyJet carries more passengers in June By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose on Tuesday, shaking off some weakness from the previous session, with commodity-sector stocks among the best performers. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 239.82, +3.14, +1.33%) rose 0.6% to 238.11. On Monday, the index closed down 0.3%, with trading limited on a U.S. holiday. However, stocks showed more signs of life on Tuesday with investors buying up companies leveraged to economic growth. Xstrata (UK:XTA 879.50, +28.50, +3.35%) shares were up 2.4% while Vedanta Resources (UK:VED 2,179, +79.00, +3.76%) shares were up 2.3% as metal futures climbed. "Australia left rates unchanged though the RBA commented that it saw the Chinese economy slowing to a more sustainable pace. This is our view -- a slowdown, sure, but one that it is to be welcomed from too fast a pace of growth," said economists at UBS. Sentiment also improved towards oil producers, with Tullow Oil (UK:TLW 1,074, +33.00, +3.17%) shares up 2.2% after it said that its first-half working interest production averaged 55,800 boepd and is expected to average between 56,000 and 57,000 boepd for the full year, in line with expectations. BP (UK:BP. 348.25, +14.95, +4.49%) (BP 29.35, -0.04, -0.14%) shares traded up 1.9%, extending gains from Monday when Libya said that it was interested in buying a stake in the firm which it regards as cheap following the recent collapse in its share price. The U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,884, +60.13, +1.25%) rose 0.7% to 4,859.80, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,881, +64.42, +1.11%) advanced 0.7% to 5,858.20 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,382, +49.83, +1.50%) rose 0.9% to 3,364.36. Asian shares were higher and U.S. stock futures were pointing to an early advance on Wall Street, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 23 points. The euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.2592, +0.0055, +0.4387%) rose 0.5% to $1.2575 and sterling (CUR_EURUSD 1.2592, +0.0055, +0.4387%) climbed 0.6% to $1.5192 against the dollar. Other firms updating investors on Tuesday included EasyJet (UK:EZJ 399.00, +7.00, +1.79%) , up 1.3% after the airline said that it carried 4.5 million passengers in June, compared to 4.1 million at the same point a year ago. Load factor, a measure of passengers to available seats, rose to 87.2%, from 86.3% last year. Shares of online gambling company PartyGaming (UK:PRTY 228.80, +8.00, +3.62%) rose 3.7%. The firm said that its second-quarter revenue is expected to be up around 28% year-on-year, mainly due to the acquisitions of Cashcade and the World Poker Tour as well as strong growth in its online casino arm.

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