MILAN (Reuters) - European shares opened higher on Thursday as banks extended a winning streak after the U.S. Federal Reserve cleared capital return plans from big banks and tech stocks recovered as a bad month drew to an end.
Well-received results from firms including fashion retailer H&M (ST:HMb) and DS Smith (L:SMDS) also provided support to the broader market, helping the pan-European STOXX (STOXX) index rise 0.3 percent and UK's FTSE (FTSE) gain 0.7 percent.
Banks (SX7E) rose for a fourth straight session as news from the Fed added steam to a rally already fuelled this week by hawkish central bank signals. Among the banks that were given the Fed green light were also U.S. units of Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) and Santander (MC:SAN), up 2.3 and 1.3 percent respectively.
The Germany heavyweight lender was also supported by news that a U.S. federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing it of concealing major deficiencies in its anti-money laundering controls as part of a $10 billion (£8 billion) Russian trading scheme.
Tech stocks (SX8P) rose 0.5 percent, joining a global rebound in the sector but remained on track to end first negative month in eight. Europe's biggest software maker SAP (DE:SAPG) rose 0.6 percent after solid results at U.S. peer Progress Software.