EU aid deal lifts European shares to 7-week high

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - European shares provisionally closed at their highest level in seven weeks on Friday, after fresh measures taken by European leaders to tackle the region's debilitating debt crisis boosted benchmark equity indexes and battered bank stocks.

However, many remained sceptical over whether the rally would last, due to uncertainty over how some of the proposals agreed at a European Union summit on Friday - such as aiding troubled banks and intervening on the bond markets - would work in practice.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index provisionally ended up 2.6 percent at 1,020.60 points - which would represent its highest closing level since ending at 1,022.52 points on May 11.

The Euro STOXX 50 index advanced by 4.7 percent to 2,259.88 points.

"I am selling into this. There's still a lot of hurdles. I'd rather be on the safe side," said ClairInvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu, adding he had sold some of his positions on Italy's FTSE MIB, France's CAC and Germany's DAX equity indexes. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Simon Jessop)