Paris climbed back above 3,700 on the CAC-40 index to close with a gain of 83.38 at 3,729.67 after another high-volume session with 21.4 million shares changing hands.

Results news provided good support with oil heavyweights pushing higher after an upbeat interim trading statement from Total, and Sanofi surging on half-year results well ahead of broker expectations.

Total rose 10 French francs to Ffr566 and Elf Aquitaine Ffr27 to Ffr598. Sentiment in the sector has also been boosted by the rally for international oil prices.

Frankfurt rose but the Xetra Dax index failed to hold on to the key 5,000-point level. By the close of electronic trade, the index was 92.6 higher at 4,948.51, off an intra-day high of 5,013.77.

SAP was a winner, rising 41 deutschmarks to DM1,034 after a Frankfurt prosecutor dropped insider trading cases against a management board member and two other employees.

BMW bounced back from Tuesday's losses, up DM56 to DM1,281. VW slipped DM2.50 to DM132.50 after the chairman was reported as saying he would encourage liaison between the two groups and VW could take a stake of nearly 25 per cent in BMW.

Wall Street's better showing, and another round of short covering, propelled Zurich 3.9 per cent higher after recent sharp losses.

Amsterdam saw investors home in on ING and Ahold which both surged more than 6 per cent to help lift the AEX index by 32.02 to 1,100.26. ING was the pick of a strong financial sector, jumping 7.10 florins to Fl122.

Madrid pared early gains to close with the general index up 23.98 at 755.52. Food retailers were among the top performers.