European shares hit day's high as banks gain

LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - European shares hit their day's high in late trade on Thursday as banks gained on a magazine report of a joint bid for Deutsche Postbank (DPBGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) by Commerzbank (CBKG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Allianz (ALVG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research).

At 1434 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.5 percent at its day's high of 1,347.52 points.

Deutsche Postbank (DPBGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) was up 1.9 percent and Commerzbank (CBKG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 2.5 percent, while Allianz (ALVG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) fell 3.7 percent, on the report in manager magazin.

The DJ Stoxx European banks index was up 0.5 percent having spent much of the day in negative territory.

(Reporting by Sitaraman Shankar)