European shares post biggest daily gain in 16 months

European shares jumped on Tuesday to post their largest one day percentage gain in 16 months and were set to make their biggest weekly rise since July 2010 on hopes policymakers were putting together measures to help ease the region's debt crisis, Reuters reported. Bank stocks featured among the best performers, with the STOXX Europe 600 banks index up 6.5 percent, continuing their gains for the third consecutive session on the optimism about a coordinated action plan. They are still down 30 percent so far this year. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares provisionally closed up 4.3 percent at 936.41 points continuing their gains for the third consecutive session.