European shares get earnings lift, Greece lags

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.5 pct

* Publicis (Paris: FR0000130577 - news) , Actelion (Xetra: 936767 - news) , Sky (Other OTC: BSYBF - news) , ARM up over 4 pct after results

* Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS - news) shares fall, brokers cite capital concerns

* Worries about ECB help hit shares in Athens

* Additional inflows on horizon from investors -fund mngr

By Lionel Laurent and Francesco Canepa

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - A raft of positive company earnings updates pushed European stock markets higher on Tuesday, with the Greek market a notable outlier as worries mounted about its banking sector.

Publicis, Sky, ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) were all up more than 4 percent after reporting results.

European companies are heading for their best earnings season in four years, sharply outperforming their U.S. counterparts on the back of a weak euro and improving economic conditions driven by the European Central Bank's bond-buying stimulus plan.

"We will see a further run-up in markets...We are seeing additional inflows from institutional clients," said Ingo Speich, portfolio manager at Union Investment in Frankfurt.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.5 percent at 1,628.12 points, near multi-year peaks but off its earlier high as concerns about Greece capped sentiment.

The Athens ATG index fell 3.2 percent and hit its lowest since September 2012 after a Bloomberg report suggested the ECB had prepared a proposal to increase the haircut on the security that Greek banks offer in return for emergency liquidity.

The Greek banking index fell 6.6 percent.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Credit Suisse fell 2.8 percent despite better than expected first-quarter earnings. While the stock has gained some 44 percent since mid-January, some brokers raised concerns over the bank's capital strength.

"The issue today will be capital for a bank where concerns linger," said Omar Fall, analyst at Jefferies.

A weak euro helped Publicis report forecast-beating organic sales growth in the first quarter, while Actelion, Europe's biggest biotech firm, raised its full-year guidance after strong sales of its new heart and lung drug helped profits beat expectations.

Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF.L - news) , however, fell 4.1 percent after it edged down its full-year earnings guidance on foreign currency concerns, prompting its shares to fall more than 2 percent.

Europe bourses in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v

Asset performance in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v

Today's European research round-up

(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)