(Corrects spelling of Thursday in first paragraph)
* FTSEurofirst 300 index rises 0.6 percent
* Nokia gains after Q1 earnings beat expectations
* General Electric results beats forecasts By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - European shares pushed ahead on Thursday with the support of forecast-beating earnings from U.S. bellwether General Electric and Finnish phone maker Nokia, with technicals indicating an upward trend.
By 1129 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.6 percent at 1,144.47 points and moved above its 50-day moving average.
Volume was 59.8 percent of its 90-day average ahead of the Easter break.
Investor sentiment improved after U.S. conglomerate General Electric's quarterly results beat expectations, joining a slew of forecast-beating numbers in the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Of the 100 S&P 500 companies that have reported first-quarter earnings so far, 78 percent of them have either beaten or met market expectations, with the remainder below forecasts, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed.
"We still got some company reporting to come and I think the market is going to be quite driven by that," Colin McLean, managing director at the 650 million pound ($1.07 billion) Scottish Value Management in Edinburgh, said.
"If there are decent updates from any of the industrials including the United States this would encourage Europe."
The technology sector extended its sharp gains from the previous session, with Nokia rising 3 percent after it beat expectatations for January-March.
"Nokia was fairly solid and the general feel as we go into the long weekend in Europe is of a positive note," Matt Brown, trader at Catalyst Markets said.
"General Electric beat expectations and it is another reason for investors to come in and buy stocks."
Earnings news helped boost chemical makers, with Dutch chemicals AkzoNobel rising 4.3 percent after first-quarter sales topped forecasts.
Construction stocks were buoyed by bullish broker notes. Irish building materials group CRH gained 4.2 percent after Goldman Sachs raised it to "buy" from "neutral" and JPMorgan started coverage with an "overweight" rating.
Lafarge rose 2.3 percent after Goldman Sachs also upgraded the world's biggest cement maker to "buy" from "neutral".
GREEK BANKS RECOVER
Greek banks recovered, up 1.7 percent following a 4.6 percent drop in the previous session when traders cited market talk that a debt restructuring could be imminent.
Goldman Sachs said it expected a Greek debt restructuring would lead to a hit of up to 41 billion euros in European bank capital, with Greek banks suffering a hit of "8-25 billion euros or 26-80 percent of total Greek bank capital."
Dutch telecoms firm KPN dropped 6.7 percent after it scaled back its 2011 profit forecast.
Elsewhere, Europe's largest hotel group Accor lost 2.4 percent after traders pointed to a cautious outlook after it reported first-quarter sales broadly in line with forecasts.
The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX gained 0.9 percent and France's CAC 40 was 0.7 percent higher. (additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by David Cowell)