Irish lenders Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks advance By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares edged higher on the last day of the first quarter, with Irish banks among notable advancers. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 264.29, +0.42, +0.16%) rose 0.3% to 264.57, bringing gains made since the start of the year and the quarter to 4.2%. "[Over the quarter] the market's gone up a little bit which is surprisingly good considering the first months looked a bit dicey," said Edmund Shing, strategist at Barclays Capital. Since the start of the year, the focus has been on how countries such as Greece and Ireland are going to cope with fiscal deficits, with banks taking much of the selling. However, Bank of Ireland (IE:BIR 1.65, +0.36, +28.11%) (IRE 8.95, +1.05, +13.29%) jumped 28.1% on Wednesday after it said that the Irish state should remain a minority investor in the lender. Read more on Irish banks. Bank of Ireland reported a net loss of 1.46 billion euros ($1.96 billion) for the nine months to Dec. 31. The results announcement came after Irish authorities said late Tuesday that the bank needs to raise another 2.7 billion euros of capital. Bank of Ireland said it believes it can raise "a substantial amount" of the required capital from private sources, including existing shareholders. Read more on Irish banks. Rival Allied Irish Banks (IE:AIB 1.28, +0.04, +2.81%) (AIB 3.29, -0.29, -8.10%) , which has to raise 7.4 billion euros of new capital, rose 4.4%, and the ISEQ 20 index climbed 1.8% to 511.38. Of the main regional equity markets in Europe, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,680, +8.01, +0.14%) rose 0.1% to 5,679.72, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 6,153, +10.72, +0.18%) advanced 0.1% to 6,150.16 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,988, +0.49, +0.01%) traded flat at 3,987.04. Asian shares ended lower and U.S. stock futures were pointing to a mildly lower start on Wall Street ahead of ADP employment figures. Read Indications. Also on the move in Europe, shares of satellite-television broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (UK:BSY 598.50, +16.50, +2.84%) rose 2.9%. U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom said, after reviewing competition in the U.K. pay-TV market, that BSkyB must offer to supply its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels to other retailers at a wholesale price set by Ofcom. Read London Markets. BSkyB said that it will challenge the conclusions. BSkyB is roughly 39%-owned by News Corp., the parent company of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report. Ericsson (SE:ERICB 74.10, -1.05, -1.40%) (ERIC 10.23, -0.12, -1.16%) shares were up 1.2%. The telecom-equipment group said it has signed a $1.3 billion deal with Bharti Airtel under which Ericsson will expand and upgrade Airtel's network in 15 of India's 22 telecom circles. MTU Aero Engines (DE:MTX 43.75, +2.01, +4.82%) shares jumped 4.8%. The firm was added to Goldman Sachs' conviction buy list as part of a note arguing civil aerospace will remain an attractive sector over the next several years for structural and cyclical reasons. "Structurally, the industry is far stronger than in prior cycles, as over 50% of the order backlog is in emerging markets and most companies have made significant progress cutting costs. Cyclically, almost every recent data point has been positive. The downturn appears to be over, and the upturn about to begin," the broker said.

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