By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose for the third straight session on Wednesday, with the Stoxx 600 index on track to record its best quarter in almost ten years. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 244.60, +1.01, +0.42%) climbed 0.4% to 244.48. The index closed up 0.2% on Tuesday, with that move bringing quarterly gains to 18.4% and signalling the best quarterly performance since the fourth quarter in 1999. Companies helping the index to gain ground on Wednesday included miners and industrial firms such as Xstrata (UK:XTA 925.50, +5.00, +0.54%) , up 1%, and Siemens (DE:SIE 65.51, +0.69, +1.06%) (SI 94.32, -1.82, -1.89%) , up 1.2%. A gauge of China's manufacturing activity released Wednesday indicated expansion for the sixth straight month in September. See full story. On a regional level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,169, +8.99, +0.17%) rose 0.2% to 5,171.45, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,728, +14.29, +0.25%) climbed 0.3% to 5,731.91 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,826, +12.37, +0.32%) advanced 0.4% to 3,830.11. Asia equity markets were mixed while U.S. stock futures were pointing to mild gains on Wall Street on Wednesday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 20 points. Sneaker giant Nike Inc. (NKE 60.09, +1.09, +1.85%) saw its shares climb in after-hours U.S. trading on Tuesday after its fiscal-first-quarter profit topped analyst expectations. See full story. Nike's European-headquartered rivals were performing well on Wednesday, with Adidas (DE:ADS 37.09, +1.18, +3.29%) shares up 3.3% and Puma (DE:PUM 227.34, +6.87, +3.12%) shares up 2.2%. Financial firms and insurance firms were also strong, with hedge fund manager Man Group (UK:EMG 326.90, +18.72, +6.07%) shares up 5.9%. Funds under management rose to $43.8 billion in the three months to Sep. 30, up from $43.3 billion at the three months ended June 30. Redemptions dropped to $2.5 billion in the quarter, while sales were $2.0 billion, meaning net outflows totaled $500 million in the period. Pretax profit for the six months to Sep. 30 is expected to total $280 million, up from $121 million recorded for the six months to March 30. In the insurance sector, Allianz (DE:ALV 85.64, +1.89, +2.26%) (AZ 12.18, -0.06, -0.49%) shares climbed 2.5%. Legal & General (UK:LGEN 87.60, +4.95, +5.98%) shares climbed 5.3% after it was upgraded to hold from sell at Deutsche Bank with the broker saying that it sees Solvency II as less of a threat amid narrowing credit spreads. Swiss drug maker Novartis (CH:NOVN 52.20, +0.90, +1.75%) climbed 1.5% after it was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup, which cited such factors as an attractive respiratory portfolio and positive currency tailwinds. On the downside, shares of U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer (UK:MKS 370.50, -4.50, -1.20%) fell 1.4%. The company said second-quarter U.K. comparable sales were down 0.5%. Total sales in the quarter ended Sep. 26 rose 2.7%, with total U.K. sales up 1.9%. Marks & Spencer expects its full-year gross margin to be 0.5 to 1 percentage point lower than last year, with operating costs rising as much as 1% and capital expenditure of around 400 million pounds ($638 million).

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