London - European shares edged higher in early trading on Tuesday, with Telecom Italia gaining after some interest in its Brazil unit and ABB rallying after unveiling a plan to buy back shares.
Telecom Italia rose 3% after news that Mexico's America Movil plans to hold talks with Brazil's Oi SA over joining its bid to buy wireless operator Tim Participacoes SA. Tim is majority-owned by Telecom Italia.
Swiss engineering group ABB rose 2.7% after saying it will buy back $4bn of shares, offering a sweetener to investors as it set out lower mid-term sales and profit targets in the face of modest economic growth.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1% at 1 391.99 points at 09:18.
On the downside, L'Oreal fell 2.4% after the group's chief executive Jean-Paul Agon cut his forecast for full-year growth in the global cosmetics market to between 3% and 3.5% from between 3.5% and 4%.