Banks, oils get Europe stocks off to strong start

LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - European shares rose in early trade on Tuesday, led by banks and oil stocks and tracking gains in the United States and Asia.

Societe Generale (SOGN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the French bank hit by the world's worst rogue trader scandal, rose 0.6 percent after first quarter net profit came in ahead of analysts' forecasts.

Other banks were also higher, with UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) up 1.4 percent, HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) up 0.8 percent and Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gaining 0.4 percent.

But Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fell 4.5 percent after saying it planned a capital increase due to further writedowns at its Calyon investment banking unit.

Commodity stocks also rose, with heavyweight oils BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gaining 0.5-1.0 percent, boosted by still high crude prices.

Analysts said that corporate results appeared broadly positive but there could be trouble to come.

"We're tap dancing on fairly thin ice," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, investment director at Seven Investment Management.

"The euro zone runs at a 9-month lag to the United States, and the figures are showing us better times, not reflecting what is going on further ahead," he said.

"The euro zone will have to cut rates, reflecting the pain in Spain, Italy and Ireland, while the Bank of England will say that it has inflationary pressures -- the question is, how embedded is inflation?"

Across Europe, Britain's FTSE .FTSE was up 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI up 0.55 percent and France's CAC .FCHI up 0.7 percent.

(Reporting by Sitaraman Shankar)