French banking group BNP Paribas swings to profit, shares advance By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose for the third straight session on Wednesday, as earnings out from the banking sector again helped to offset worries about Greece's fiscal position. After gaining 1.4% over the first two sessions of the week, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 246.88, +2.50, +1.02%) rose another 0.9% to 246.48 on Wednesday. Helping that advance, shares of French banking group BNP Paribas (FR:BNP 50.50, +1.30, +2.64%) climbed 2% after it swung to fourth-quarter net income of 1.37 billion euros ($1.89 billion) from a year-earlier loss of about the same amount, after revenue more than doubled to 10.06 billion euros from 4.85 billion. In Amsterdam, ING Groep (NL:INGA 6.66, +0.21, +3.18%) (ING 8.96, +0.22, +2.52%) rose 1.3% after it narrowed its fourth-quarter loss to 712 million euros ($980 million) from 3.71 billion euros in the same quarter a year before. On Tuesday, stronger-than-expected earnings from Barclays (UK:BARC 303.00, +9.25, +3.15%) (BCS 19.03, +2.35, +14.09%) fueled a sharp jump in the lender's share price and helped support broad sentiment across Europe. The lender added another 1.8% on Wednesday after an upgrade to buy from hold at Royal Bank of Scotland. On a regional level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,280, +36.23, +0.69%) rose 0.5% to 5,271.53, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,643, +51.61, +0.92%) advanced 0.9% to 5,643.51 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,720, +51.36, +1.40%) Asian shares jumped higher with all regions now back from a holiday break, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to an extension of Tuesday's sharp gains. In the currency markets, the euro rose 0.1% to $1.3773 against the dollar. The currency has been under pressure in recent weeks as investors fretted about Greece's debt pile. "We think that eventually Greece will not be allowed to default and will receive some form of a bridge loan, probably in the form of a loan from member states. This will come together with more restrictive conditions on the budget and additional measures," said economists at UBS. In the commodity markets, oil and gold futures were little changed after gaining sharply in the previous sessions. Of commodity-sector firms reporting on Wednesday, shares of Norway's Norsk Hydro (NO:NHY 40.10, -1.56, -3.74%) declined 2.9%. The power and aluminum firm's fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to 569 million Norwegian kroner ($97.1 million), from 6.0 billion kroner recorded at the same point a year ago but the firm said that it remains cautious for 2010. Sales declined to 16.4 billion kroner, from 20.7 billion kroner last year. Higher realized aluminum prices were offset by weak alumina and trading results during the three month period. Publicis (FR:PUB 28.44, -0.77, -2.62%) , the Paris advertising and media group, declined 3.1% after it reported that its fourth-quarter net income fell 9.8% to 403 million euros. Revenue fell 7.6% to 1.27 billion euros due to foreign-exchange fluctuations, the group reported on Wednesday.

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