STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-CRH tops UK FTSE 100 after UBS upgrade

CRH (Irish: CRG.IR - news) leads gainers on Britain's FTSE 100 index as UBS adds the building supplies company to its sector favourite in Europe, highlighting its improving earnings outlook as the company turns around its fortunes.

CRH is up 3.5 percent in volume already 67 percent of its full-day average for the past three months at 1115 GMT, compared to less than half the average for the FTSE at large.

Having cut its earnings outlook in August, CRH said in November it was to undertake a review of its businesses to identify further disposals as it reiterated its guidance for the year after sales rose two percent in the third quarter.

"While short-term valuation multiples continue to look elevated, we are more confident that earnings estimates have bottomed, in particular in a sector context where we expect further negative earnings momentum," analysts at UBS write in a note.

"A combination of very easy comparatives in H1, continued recovery in the US and early signs of improvement in Europe should help CRH deliver its first year of earnings growth in 8 years."

CRH trades on a high multiple 23 times forward 12 month earnings, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, compared to a multiple of 16 times for Wolseley (LSE: WOS.L - news) , which the Swiss bank downgrades to "neutral", citing concerns over its valuation.

Wolseley dipped 0.2 percent, underperforming the market in relatively high volume of 60 percent of its 90-day average.

Reuters messaging rm://alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net