MILAN (Reuters) - European shares hit a one-month high on Wednesday, helped by a rally in tech stocks following well-received earning updates from equipment makers Ericsson and ASML and a record close for the Nasdaq overnight.
Europe's tech index rose more than 2 percent, leading sectoral gainers in the region, with Ericsson and ASML surging 9 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Their gains and weakness in the pound and euro helped drive the pan-European STOXX 600 index up 0.5 percent to its highest level since June 18.
Gains were broad-based, although banks fell 0.5 percent, dragged by a drop of 9.6 percent in Danske Bank after the Danish lender's second-quarter pretax profit fell short of expectations.
Among top gainers was Novartis, which rose 2.9 percent following its earnings update. The Swiss heavyweight drugmaker said it was on track for sales and profit growth this year after posting strong second quarter results.
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Kit Rees)
