Europe shares cut losses, UK banks fuel turnaround

European shares cut Tuesday's losses and rose as a turnaround in shares of Barclays boosted UK banks and U.S. stock futures extended gains.

By 7:19 a.m. EST the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,337.90 points, having recovered from an intraday low at 1,317.66.

Barclays earlier revealed more credit-related writedowns but delivered results that were largely in line with expectations, while company executives gave an upbeat presentation to analysts. Shares in the company were up 3.8 percent, helping push up Royal Bank of Scotland by nearly 2 percent, while HSBC gained 1.8 percent.

Banks earlier fell after Credit Suisse revealed a shock writedown.

U.S. stock futures DJH8 SPH8 DJH8 all rose between 0.8 percent and 1 percent after top retailer Wal-Mart reported a rise in quarterly profit.

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper)