Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose, paced by banks and insurers as earnings from ING Groep NV, HVB Group and Aegon NV beat analysts' estimates. ING's chief executive said he was ``positive'' about the rest of this year.

``The overall earnings picture is good,'' said Manu Koskiniemi, who oversees a European stock fund at Mandatum Asset Management in Helsinki. Mandatum oversees about $25 billion. ``Financial companies show good profits and self-confidence.'' Koskiniemi's holdings of insurance stocks exceed their proportion in equity benchmarks.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.3 percent to 297.25 at 11:27 a.m. in London. The Stoxx 50 gained 0.2 percent, while the Euro Stoxx 50, a gauge for the 12 countries using the euro, advanced 0.4 percent.

National benchmarks rose in 10 of 18 western European markets. France's CAC 40 Index climbed 0.3 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose less than 0.1 percent. Germany's DAX Index advanced 0.4 percent.

After suffering its steepest monthly slide since March 2004 last month, the Stoxx 600 has gained almost all of it back, adding 2.4 percent in the eight trading days so far in November.

ING jumped 2.7 percent to 25.90 euros. The largest Dutch financial-services company said third-quarter net income rose 21 percent to 1.88 billion euros ($2.21 billion). That beat the 1.36 billion-euro estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

ING joined financial companies Deutsche Bank AG, ABN Amro Holding NV, UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group, which are all also Stoxx 50 members, in reporting earnings that beat estimates.

Not all insurance stocks rose. Hannover Re, the world's No. 4 reinsurer, cut its profit forecast for 2005 a second time and its quarterly loss widened more than analysts were estimating because of claims from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The stock slid 5.9 percent to 28.82 euros, the steepest Stoxx 600 drop.

HVB Group, the German bank being acquired by UniCredito Italiano SpA, added 2.4 percent to 24.74 euros. It said profit surged to 324 million euros in the third quarter, boosted by an increased trading revenue and lower provisions for risky loans. That was above analysts' expectations of 281 million euros.

Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG, an Austrian lender also being bought by UniCredito, added 1.9 percent to 98.48 after raising its 2005 profit forecast. Third-quarter net income more than doubled because of gains from asset sales and earnings in eastern Europe.

E.ON led gains by electricity companies, climbing 1.6 percent to 76.20 euros in Germany. The world's largest publicly traded utility reported a record profit as third-quarter net income rose to 3.37 billion euros from 1.15 billion euros, helped by rising European power prices and asset sales including apartments and a furnace maker.

BP and Shell, Europe's two biggest oil companies, both fell 0.6 percent. A report yesterday showed U.S. inventories rose more than expected on increased Gulf of Mexico production.

Siemens AG, Germany's largest engineering company, added 1.6 percent to 63.02 euros, even after reporting falling profit. Ben Uglow, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in London, said earnings at industrial divisions, including power generation, industrial automation and transportation, beat his estimates.

InBev NV, the Belgian brewer of Stella Artois and Rolling Rock, added 2.8 percent to 34.73 euros. The brewer posted third- quarter net income of 358 million euros after buying Latin America's biggest beermaker to make up for falling demand in the U.S. and Europe. Analysts had expected InBev to earn 348 million euros. Beer volume, excluding acquisitions, rose 6.8 percent.

Pernod Ricard SA, the world's No. 2 distiller, lost 2 percent to 2 euros, even after reporting a 55 percent increase in first-quarter sales.

The takeover of Ballantine's whiskey and other Allied Domecq Plc brands added 459 million euros to revenue. Excluding those units, Pernod sales rose 7 percent. Shipments of Pernod products gained 3 percent in the quarter, down from 6 percent in the previous six months.

``There is quite a slowdown in organic growth,'' said Cedric Louboutin, an analyst at Fideuram Wargny in Paris, who has a ``buy'' rating on the stock.

BT Group Plc, Britain's largest phone company, slipped after reporting fiscal second-quarter profit fell 14 percent. The former monopoly spent more to dismiss employees, booked a charge for a regulator-enforced reorganization and called the market ``challenging.'' The shares fell 2.2 percent.

``BT is focusing on broadband; the problem there is that margins are much lower'' than in mobile-telephony, said Bob Parker, deputy chairman of Credit Suisse Asset Management in London, which oversees the equivalent of $335 billion. BT would have been better off keeping its mobile unit, Parker said.

A measure of telecommunication stocks fell 0.5 percent, the second-worst industry performer on the Stoxx 600 after a gauge of oil stocks that slipped 0.6 percent.

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