By Sarah Turner
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose in early trading on Thursday, marking the third straight session of gains, with miners leading the advance as gold futures hit a fresh all-time high in electronic trading. BHP Billiton (UK:BLT 1,962, +22.00, +1.13%) shares rose 1% and Vedanta Resources (UK:VED 2,485, +41.00, +1.68%) shares climbed 2%. Still, Siemens (DE:SIE 66.49, -0.92, -1.37%) (SI 101.67, +0.07, +0.07%) shares fell 1.8% after it reported a net loss of 1.13 billion euros in its fiscal fourth quarter. The U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.6% to 5,358.74, the German DAX index climbed 0.8% to 5,826.58 and the French CAC-40 index rose 0.8% to 3,826.55.