European shares rise alongside stronger energy stocks, Fed in focus

(Adds details, updates prices)

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 1.1 percent

* Heineken (Other OTC: HEINY - news) , UCB, Volkswagen (Other OTC: VLKAF - news) rally after results

* Meggitt (Other OTC: MEGGF - news) sinks after profit warning

* Energy stocks extend gains as crude rallies

* Fed seen keeping rates unchanged

By Danilo Masoni and Alistair Smout

MILAN, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 28 (Reuters) - European shares extended gains on Wednesday, as energy stocks rose further on the back of a crude oil price rally, while investors were wary ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting widely expected to result in unchanged interest rates.

The FTSEurofirst 300 was up 1.1 percent, more than recouping Tuesday's 1 percent decline. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index rose 1.4 percent.

The Fed may struggle to convince sceptical investors it can tighten monetary policy before the end of the year in the face of slowing U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . and global economies.

"I doubt (Fed chair Janet) Yellen would want to sound particularly aggressive. The latest data have been mediocre ... and more time is needed to evaluate how far China and emerging markets have stabilised. And commodities prices have fallen," Anthilia Capital Partners fund manager, Giuseppe Sersale, said.

The Fed will disclose its decision at 1800 GMT.

Energy stocks were the top sectoral gainer with a rise of more than 2.2 percent, as oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel on what traders said was a large algorithmic trade before weekly U.S. crude inventory data.

Among standouts, Brewer Heineken rose 3.9 percent, the biggest gainer in the FTSEurofirst, after reporting sales in Europe and the Americas came in above expectations.

Belgian pharmaceutical firm UCB rose 4.3 percent after its own well-received results.

Carmaker Volkswagen also rose 3 percent after announcing its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years, with traders expressing relief that the results were not worse after it was hit by an emissions test cheating scandal.

"Investors are glad this is out of the way, which is why shares turned higher. Volkswagen's sales figures are holding up quite well, but we need to wait a couple of months to see the real fall-out," Peregrine & Black sales trader Markus Huber said.

A quarter of STOXX Europe 600 companies have reported results, and 59 percent of those have beaten or met expectations, Thomson Reuters Starmine data showed.

On the broader STOXX Europe 600, Saipem (Amsterdam: QG6.AS - news) rose 9.6 percent after it announced a cash call. Dialog rebounded from declines this week after announcing disappointing figures on Monday. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) provides chips for Apple (Swiss: AAPL.SW - news) , whose results beat expectations.

Elsewhere, Sweden said it would expand its bond-buying programme, spurring an initial outperformance in Swedish blue chips. They later pared some gains to be up 0.2 percent.

Hopes that the European Central Bank would expand its own asset purchases in December, combined with a rate cut in China, helped the FTSEurofirst 300 to two-month highs at the end of last week.

Among individual losers, Meggitt fell 19 percent after a profit warning and British bank Lloyds dropped 4.3 percent after taking a further charge for mis-selling insurance and profits missing expectations.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Fiat Chrysler fell more than 4 percent after the carmaker unexpectedly booked pre-tax charges of 761 million euros for possible future car recalls.

Today's European research round-up (Editing by Louise Ireland)