European stocks recover; miners up after Alcoa earns

PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) - European stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday, trimming some of the previous session's sharp losses after a pullback in oil and reassuring comments from the Fed chairman sparked a relief rally in equities worldwide.

Miners were among the biggest gainers, with Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) up 1.3 percent and BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) up 1.5 percent, after U.S. aluminium producer Alcoa (AA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted stronger-than-expected results late on Tuesday.

At 0706 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.8 percent at 1,171.36 points. "It's been a fairly oversold situation, and I wouldn't rule out a relief rally at this point," said Franz Wenzel, strategist at AXA Investment Managers, in Paris.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank may keep an emergency lending facility for big Wall Street firms open longer than it initially intended, sparking sharp gains among U.S. banking stocks.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson)