By Daniela Silberstein Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks advanced for a third day, the longest stretch of gains in seven weeks, before a report forecast to show American employers cut fewer jobs last month. Asian shares climbed after Australia’s central bank raised its economic growth outlook. Hannover Re added 4.1 percent after profit beat analysts’ estimates. British Airways Plc surged 6.5 percent after Europe’s third-biggest carrier said traffic and ticket prices appear to have stabilized. Lafarge SA dropped 4.4 percent after earnings fell and the company lowered its forecast for cement sales. Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia’s largest investment bank, and Westpac Banking Corp. increased at least 2.6 percent. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.2 percent to 241.03 as of 12:08 p.m. in London, heading for the first weekly gain in three weeks. The measure has climbed 53 percent since March on signs that government stimulus policies and record-low interest rates are helping to drag the economy out of recession. “Overall the news are good, encouraging about the overall economy,” Lothar Mentel, chief investment officer at Octopus Investments Ltd. in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I’m overall quite optimistic for the equity markets but we have to be aware, because of all the uncertainty around, it will be volatile.” The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.1 percent today, paring a weekly loss. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring next month fluctuated. U.S. stocks surged yesterday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest gain since July, as jobless claims and worker productivity beat estimates and Cisco Systems Inc. said an improving economy spurred a sales rebound. U.S. Payrolls U.S. employers probably cut the fewest jobs in October in more than a year as the economic recovery eased the worst labor- market slump since the 1930s, economists said before a report today. Payrolls fell by 175,000 workers, the smallest drop since August 2008, according to the median estimate of 84 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The jobless rate may have climbed to a 26-year high of 9.9 percent, the survey also showed. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said the Group of 20 nations should develop a way to tackle asset-price bubbles as the world’s leading economies recover. The comments help shape the agenda for a meeting of G-20 finance ministers hosted by Darling today in St. Andrews, Scotland that will include a discussion of how to exit their fiscal stimulus measures. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England this week moved to unwind some of the emergency steps they took to rescue the world economy from its sharpest slump since the Great Depression. Hannover Re Rises Hannover Re gained 4.1 percent to 32.57 euros. Germany’s second-biggest reinsurer raised its full-year profit target after posted third-quarter net income of 159.4 million euros ($237 million), topping the median analyst forecast of 148 million euros. British Airways rallied 6.5 percent to 198.4 pence even after reporting a record first-half net loss of 217 million pounds ($360 million). The U.K. carrier said premium traffic slipped 1.4 percent last month versus a 7.9 decline in September and that volumes and yields, a measure of revenue per passenger, are now stable. Earnings have exceeded estimates at 129 of the 214 companies in the Stoxx 600 to have announced results since Oct. 7, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with 346 of the 417 companies in the S&P 500 that have topped forecasts during the same period. Lafarge, Macquarie Lafarge tumbled 4.4 percent to 55.42 euros as third-quarter net income fell to 404 million euros from 647 million euros a year earlier. The world’s biggest cement maker predicted a 6 percent to 8 percent drop in cement sales this year. In July, the company had estimated a decline of 4 percent to 8 percent. Macquarie Group climbed 4.1 percent to A$49.60 and Westpac, Australia’s second-largest bank, gained 2.6 percent to A$26.55. Australia’s central bank said the economy will expand at more than three times the pace forecast in August, and signaled it will continue to lead the world in raising interest rates. Royal Bank of Scotland Plc advanced 7.6 percent to 37.87 pence even after Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank had a third-quarter loss of 1.8 billion pounds after 3.3 billion pounds of provisions for bad loans and credit-market writedowns. “I would much rather they really write down the bad loans and get on with what they need to do,” Octopus Investments’ Mentel said. “What we don’t want to have in the U.K. after this entire banking crisis is a Japanese situation where you have zombie banks.” Irish Banks Allied Irish Banks Plc jumped 11 percent to 1.95 euros after the lender said it sold a five-year bond not covered by the government guarantee, and the latest stage of Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency legislation was passed by lawmakers. Bank of Ireland Plc advanced 4.7 percent to 2 euros. Seadrill Ltd. climbed 3.7 percent to 130.80 kroner. The offshore drilling company founded by billionaire John Fredriksen said third-quarter profit surged more than fourfold to $325 million as it booked a gain from an asset sale. That beat the $279 million average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. M6-Metropole Television SA rose 6 percent to 18.40 euros. France’s second-largest commercial television company said third-quarter revenue climbed 9.2 percent to 296 million euros, helped by an increase in group advertising sales. L’Oreal SA lost 1.6 percent to 70.18 euros. The world’s largest cosmetics maker said third-quarter sales fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier to 4.23 billion euros, missing analysts’ estimates. The stock was cut to “hold” from “buy” at Societe Generale SA, which cited “slow” growth. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniela Silberstein in Zurich at dsilberstei2@bloomberg.net.

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