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Date: Wednesday 20 Aug 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Europe’s main markets are holding on to gains by midday, helped by strong oil and mining stocks.

Tech shares are also on the rise following better-than-expected results from Hewlett-Packard. The world's largest personal-computer maker's third-quarter net income increased 14% helped by strong demand for its notebooks in Europe and Asia.

A deal announced by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson also lifted sentiment. The two companies said they will combine some of its mobile-communications units. The companies said the joint venture will have an industry leading position with sales of $3.6bn per year.

Germany's largest maker of semiconductors Infineon Technologies is also in the blue.

Commodity-related stocks are going well in line with higher oil and metal prices. Shell and Eni are among the risers.

In broker news, Commerzbank upgraded German mail group Deutsche Post to add from hold, saying the current slowdown in the economy is likely to only have a limited impact on the company.

Elsewhere, the Financial Times Deutschland reported this morning that Deutsche Post is to make a decision on the sale of Deutsche Postbank by the beginning of October.

The German Dax is 19 points higher at 6,301, the French CAC gained 32 points to 4,365, while the Swiss market fell 2 points to 7,112.

Euro zone construction output in June sank by 2.4% year-on-year, said the European Union's statistics office Eurostat.

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