European shares rise

European shares touched new seven-year highs on Tuesday after data showed China's economic growth slowed less than feared and on expectations the European Central Bank will launch a quantitative easing programme later this week, Reuters reported.
At 0910 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.7 percent at 1,419.33 points, topping Monday's seven-year high.
China's economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014, its slowest pace in 24 years and barely missing the country's official 7.5 percent target. But the data was seen as a relief for investors, who had feared a sharper slowdown.
'Growth in the last quarter of 2014 shows some nice resilience, 7.3 percent versus expectations of 7.2 percent, which shows that our scenario of a soft landing is quite close to reality,' said John Plassard, senior equity sales trader at Mirabaud Securities in Geneva.