European shares turned positive in morning trading on Wednesday, helped by some encouraging broker upgrades, with Switzerland's SMI equity index hitting the 9,000-point mark for the first time since late 2007, according to Reuters. Prudential rose 1.1 percent to lead insurers after Deutsche Bank increased its target price for the stock to 1,680 pence from 1,630 pence. AstraZeneca was up 1.4 percent, helping the European healthcare index after Natixis raised its price target for the stock. At 1050 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,362.84 points after falling to a low of 1,355.67 earlier in the session. The Swiss SMI index rose 0.2 percent to 8,991.02 points after reaching an intra-day high of 9001.84 points. It has gained nearly 10 percent so far this year, outpacing all European major stock indexes including Germany's DAX, down 0.7 percent over the same period. The STOXX Europe Basic Resources index fell 0.7 percent, the worst sectoral performer in Europe.
