European shares staged a modest rebound on Thursday as a boost from strong results from telecoms firm Iliad and financial group KBC was curbed by new gloomy updates in the utilities sector, Reuters reported. Shares in KBC rose 6 percent to the top of the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index after the Belgian financial group reported a better-than-expected net profit for the third quarter, thanks to a rise in income from its banking activities. French low-cost telecom firm Iliad was also among top gainers, up 3.8 percent, after it added more mobile subscribers than analysts expected in the third quarter. They helped the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rise 0.5 percent to 1,349.64 points at 0844 GMT, recouping less than half of its 1.1 percent drop in the previous session. The index is struggling to make headway past a two-month high hit last week as investors weigh a relatively benign earnings season, which has seen around 60 percent of companies in the STOXX Europe 600 index meet or beat expectations, against a weak macro economic backdrop in Europe.
