Europe shares hit 1-week closing high on U.S. data

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - European shares hit a one-week closing high on Thursday after data showed new claims for U.S. jobless aid fell to a 10-month low and business productivity in the third quarter grew at the fastest pace in six years.

The market also got some support after the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold and BoE said it would expand its quantitative easing programme by 25 billion pounds ($41 billion). [ID:nL5152809] [ID:nL5403327]

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares provisionally ended up 0.7 percent at 991.47 points -- the highest close since Oct 29 -- after falling to as low as 969.74 points earlier in the session.

Financials were among the top gainers, with Standard Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), Natixis (CNAT.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Bank of Ireland (BKIR.I: Quote, Profile, Research) rising between 1.1 percent to 9.1 percent.

"Everybody was cautious in the last few days, but the macro-economic data gave the market a little push, which was a necessary boost," said Giuseppe-Guido Amato, strategist at Lang & Schwarz.

"We see a good support here," he added.

The U.S. Labor Department said productivity surged at a 9.5 percent annual rate, the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2003, as companies squeezed more output from a smaller pool of labour to cut costs. [ID:nN05106320]

In another report, the department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 20,000 to 512,000 last week, the lowest since early January. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims slipping to 523,000 last week. (Reporting by Atul Prakash)