AlQa'dah 20, 1434, Sep 26, 2013, SPA -- European shares held firm on Thursday, with retailer H&M a big gainer on robust earnings, Reuters reported. Swedish fashion firm Hennes & Mauritz led the gainers across Europe, jumping 6.7 percent after posting a bigger rise than expected in pretax profit for its fiscal third quarter. The FTSEurofirst 300 was flat at 1,256.53 points. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50, meanwhile, edged down 0.1 percent to 2,924.39 points. While the Euro STOXX 50 edged lower on Thursday, Barclays Capital technical analyst Lynnden Branigan was relatively upbeat on the index, given it has found a base over the 2,900 area. He reckoned a near-term move back up towards last week's highs of 2,955 was plausible, though would need to see a clear break above this level before becoming more optimistic.
