By Sarah Turner

LONDON (Dow Jones)-- European shares climbed on Friday, moving higher for the second straight session, with mineral extractors and banks ranking as some of the strongest performers.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 1.4% to 208.51.

"There is a bit of bargain hunting," noted Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland Research, who also noted that options and futures on individual stocks and indexes are due to expire Friday.

On a regional level, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 1.7% to 4,352.54, the French CAC-40 index moved up 1% to 3,224.90 and the German DAX index gained 0.4% to 4,857.61.

Asia markets ended higher to close out the week, while U.S. stocks made broad gains in morning trading on Wall Street.

U.S. markets got a boost Thursday from positive data that showed jobless numbers down and signs of improvement in the factory sector and in leading economic indicators.

Mineral extractors, banks up

Among the mining shares helping along the advance in Europe, Lonmin added 5.9% and BHP Billiton (BHP) traded up 2.8%.

Also higher in the sector, shares of Xstrata rose 4.7% as investors eyed a Financial Times newspaper report that shareholder Glencore could be mulling a flotation.

"We believe a Glencore-Xstrata get-together makes more sense than a separate Glencore IPO," said analysts at Evolution Securities.

Financials were also on the move, with shares of Bank of Ireland up 5.7% and Standard Chartered up 2.1%.

Insurance firm Zurich Financial Services climbed 1.5% after it said that it had an estimated solvency I ratio of more than 180% at May 31. This compares with a solvency I ratio of 157% at March 31.

Both sectors have rallied since March on hopes that the economic backdrop is stabilizing.

Along these lines, home builder Taylor Wimpey said that it has seen continued stability in U.K. markets in recent months as well as an improvement in its North American operations.

"Whilst wider economic conditions remain weak and rising unemployment could still have an effect on our markets, the severe downside scenarios for which we have been planning now appear less likely to materialize," the company said.

Shares of Taylor Wimpey rallied 8.9% in London.

In Frankfurt, Tui jumped 10.4% as the travel firm got upgraded to buy from reduce at Equinet, which cited a recent drop in Tui's shares. The price decline wasn't due to any change in the operating business and therefore wasn't justified, the broker said.

Business 'extremely poor,' Porsche says

Still, automakers were lower, with investors focused on the action in Frankfurt.

Shares of Germany's Daimler (DAI) fell 1.7% as Volkswagen lost 3.4%.

Shares of Porsche Automobil Holding , Volkswagen's potential merger partner, traded flat.

Porsche said Friday that sales from August last year to April fell 15% to 4.64 billion euros. The high-end automaker plans to raise additional capital to obtain necessary business capital and to avoid future liquidity bottlenecks.

Porsche wasn't optimistic for the short term.

"In light of the extremely poor business in the first three months of 2009, we still believe that it will not be possible to match the earnings level of prior years," it said.

"The underlying trend is negative and it may be a bit disappointing that the facelift of the Boxster did not have a more positive impact in the third quarter," noted analysts at Sal. Oppenheim.

Services Desk; Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9319/9274