Europe: Stocks Turn Higher as Banks Recover

European stocks erased sharp losses at open to trade mostly higher, helped by buying bank stocks, even as debt concerns remained in focus.

At the time of writing, Britain's FTSE was flat, France's CAC rose 1.2% while Germany's DAX climbed 1.8%.

Financials erased early losses and advanced broadly. Barclays, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole jumped 2.2% to 6.7%.

But miners continued to trade lower, tracking weak metal prices: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata were trading between 0.7% and 1.6% lower.

Credit default swaps, or the cost of insuring debt, rose for several Euro-zone countries' debt. Gold, base metals and crude oil fell in the commodities market. The U.S. dollar rose.