European banks enjoy modest recovery European lenders recovered some of their losses on Wednesday morning, after enduring their worst session in four months on Tuesday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 banks index rose 0.8 per cent to 411.34, after falling 4.3 per cent in the previous session. BNP Paribas rose 2.1 per cent to €35.75 after falling 6.4 per cent on Tuesday, while Société Générale rose 1.4 per cent to €23.33 after a 7.8 per cent drop in the previous session. In Milan, Italian banks bounced back from big losses on Tuesday. Banco Popolare rose 6.1 per cent to €1.59, while Banca Monte Dei Paschi rose 4 per cent to €0.41. The FTSE MIB rose 0.9 per cent to 16,357.40. On the wider market, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 edged up 0.3 per cent to 1,055.25 during morning trading, after enduring its worst single session drop since November on Tuesday. Europe's benchmark index is down 3.2 per cent from its mid-February peak of 1,090.95, as the 2012 rally continues to peter out. "[With] oil shooting up and longer-term refinancing operation enthusiasm waning, it is hard to see what sweetener or fireworks are out there to push markets much higher in the short run," said Karen Olney, an equity strategist at UBS. In Frankfurt, RWE dropped 1.4 per cent to €33.96 following downgrades from HSBC and UBS. The latter downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy," citing a "lack of positive company-specific catalysts for RWE." HSBC cut the stock to "underweight" from "neutral." Profit-taking knocked Adidas after it posted its latest results. The German sports goods maker fell 1.7 per cent to €56.74 despite a solid set of results, having rallied almost 15 per cent in 2012. The Xetra Dax as a whole rose 0.5 per cent to 6,664.84. Industrial stocks dominated gains, with K+S rising 2.6 per cent to €35.93, while HeidelbergCement rose 1.8 per cent to €39.73. In Paris, Total fell 1.1 per cent to €41.17 after the Financial Times revealed that Norway's Statoil is ahead of the French oil group in the takeover battle for the Brazilian oil and gas group, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The CAC 40 index rose 0.8 per cent to 3,388.76.