Banks were higher in Europe on Tuesday after brokers had positive comments and merger news was in focus. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.3 percent to 1,543.04, another new six-year peak.

Besides banks, there were also gains in the medical care sector. Fresenius Medical Care, the German dialysis provider, added 6.2 percent to €110.08, a new record high, after a provision in the 2008 US budget submitted by President George W. Bush was said to seek an extension of the time private insurance has to pay for kidney dialysis before Medicare will pay for the procedure. Not all analysts were sure, however, that the budget provision, which still has to be passed by Congress, was enough to justify such a gain. Fresenius, the parent company of FMC, was also up, gaining 3.9 percent to €56.23.

In the energy sector, Eon added 1.6 percent to €110.70 after Goldman Sachs upped its recommendation to “buy” as it looked more and more as if the German company’s bid for Endsea would be successful. Endsea dropped 0.7 percent to €37.85.

Among banks Millennium BCP added 1.8 percent to €2.88 as it looked less likely that it would take over Banco Portugues de Investimento after a report that the Bank of Portugal had given approval for German insurer Allianz to add to its stake in BPI, raising its holding from 8.8 percent to 19.9 percent. Allianz gained 0.1 percent on the news, while BPI was 1.3 percent higher to €6.35.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.2 percent to 1,366.30, a new four and a half year high, on Tuesday, largely on advances in the automobile manufacturing sector.

BMW added 2.9 percent to €41.87 after having gone as high as €42.57 earlier in the day. The gain came after UBS upgraded the company’s shares to “buy” from “neutral” and increased its target share price to €49, up from €37. Elsewhere in the sector, Volkswagen was up 2.7 percent to €57.66 and Peugeot gained 3.6 percent to €49.77.

Mergers and acquisitions were still on the agenda. In the banking sector, Millennium BCP, Portugal’s largest publicly traded bank, gained 4.5 percent to €2.54 on a largely positive response to its bid for Banco BPI, a smaller competitor. BPI’s shares dropped 2.8 percent to €5.68 on the news.

Stock market operator Euronext reported slightly higher than expected profits in 2005 and said it was interested in merging with Deutsche Borse. Euronext’s shares dropped 1.1 percent on the news, to €60.95, while Deutsche Borse gained 2.1 percent to €114.20.

Elsewhere, Deutsche Post was down 7.1 percent to €21.11 as it warned that its express courier service in the US could lose more money and predicted that group operating profits in 2006 would be flat.