A raft of positive company earnings updates pushed European shares higher on Tuesday, with the Greek stock market a notable outlier as worries mounted about its banking sector.

Publicis, Sky and ARM Holdings were all up 4 percent or more after reporting results.

European companies are heading for their best earnings season in four years, sharply outperforming their U.S. counterparts on the back of a weak euro and improving economic conditions, driven by the European Central Bank's bond-buying stimulus plan.

At 1409 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.8 percent at 1,633.88 points, near multi-year peaks but off its earlier high as concerns about Greece capped sentiment.

The Athens ATG index fell 3.6 percent and hit its lowest since September 2012 after a Bloomberg report suggested the ECB had prepared a proposal to increase the haircut on the security that Greek banks offer in return for emergency liquidity.

The Greek banking index fell 4.1 percent.

Elsewhere, shares in Credit Suisse dropped 2.3 percent despite better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. While the stock has gained some 44 percent since mid-January, some brokers raised concerns over the bank's capital strength.

A weak euro helped advertising group Publicis report forecast-beating organic sales growth in the first quarter, while Actelion, Europe's biggest biotech firm, raised its full-year guidance after strong sales of its new heart and lung drug helped profits beat expectations.

Associated British Foods, however, fell 3.8 percent after it edged down its full-year earnings guidance on foreign currency concerns, prompting its shares to fall more than 2 percent.

The two German listings of U.S. drugs group Mylan rose 10 percent and 6.4 percent respectively after it received a takeover offer from Teva. (Reuters)

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