By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose on Wednesday, helped by another day of gains for commodity-sector firms, earnings from technology companies and deal making.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 249.69, +3.34, +1.36%) climbed 0.9% to 248.56.
The index ended marginally higher on Tuesday, snapping a four-session losing streak, helped by gains from miners "on a combination of supportive macro and corporate news," according to Ian Williams, strategist at Altium Securities.
Basic resource stocks climbed again on Wednesday, with copper miners particularly strong as copper futures added another cent to trade at $3.01 per pound.
Kazakhmys (UK:KAZ 1,064, +30.00, +2.90%) shares were up 3% and Antofagasta (UK:ANTO 965.00, +29.00, +3.10%) shares rose 2.1%.
Oil and gas companies were also trading higher, with BP (UK:BP. 398.50, +11.05, +2.85%) (BP 35.20, -0.55, -1.54%) shares up 2% after the firm said late Tuesday that it will sell $7 billion of its assets to Apache Corp.
Elsewhere in the sector, Total (FR:FP 38.37, +0.62, +1.64%) (TOT 49.15, +0.01, +0.02%) shares added 1.8% and Repsol (ES:REP 17.84, +0.22, +1.22%) (REP 23.03, +0.32, +1.41%) shares climbed 1.1%.
On the regional level, the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,526, +58.27, +1.68%) rose 1.7% to 3,527.52, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,214, +74.81, +1.46%) rose 1.2% to 5,200.27 and the German DAX index (DX:DAX 6,047, +79.91, +1.34%) climbed 1.1% to 6,035.01.
Asian shares were mixed, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to an extension of the previous session's gains with testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on tap.
"The Fed chairman is likely to reiterate the FOMC's concerns over the growth outlook, as were laid out in the minutes of its 23rd June meeting, and underscore expectations that the Fed funds target will remain at prevailing levels for a very considerable time," noted strategists at Icap.
U.S. technology giant Apple Inc (AAPL 251.89, +6.31, +2.57%) reported a big surge in earnings for its third-fiscal quarter late Tuesday, blowing past Wall Street's estimates thanks in large part to booming demand for the company's iPhone and iPad devices. Read more on Apple results.
Technology-sector firms gained in Europe on Wednesday, with Dutch satellite-navigation-equipment maker TomTom (NL:TOM2 4.96, +0.15, +3.05%) jumping 4% after its second-quarter net profit rose 69% to 34 million euros ($43.8 million).
Shares of Swedish paper company SCA jumped 8.2% after reporting a 23% rise in second-quarter net profit to 1.44 billion Swedish kroner ($195.9 million), as its packaging and hygiene products divisions performed well.
Turning to deal news and shares of consumer products firm SSL International (UK:SSL 1,169, +287.00, +32.54%) surged 32.9% after household products firm Reckitt Benckiser (UK:RB. 3,282, +92.00, +2.88%) made an agreed 2.54 billion pound ($3.89 billion) bid for the firm.
Reckitt shares climbed 3.5% after it said that that acquisition provides an attractive opportunity to increase its presence in the health and personal-care sector and that, excluding restructuring charges, the deal is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing.
