* FTSEurofirst 300 hits 2009 high, 9th day of gains
* Shares advance on better-than-expected U.S. homes data
* Financials among top gainers; miners, drugmakers rise
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By Atul Prakash
LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - European equities jumped in afternoon trade on Thursday to hit their highest level since November 2008 after data showed that sales of previously owned homes in the United States rose at a faster pace than expected.
The National Association of Realtors said sales rose 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.89 million units from a downwardly revised 4.72 million pace in May. June's reading compares with forecasts for a 4.84 million unit annual pace.
At 1447 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 1.7 percent at 905.04 points after touching a high of 905.60 -- the highest point for the year so far. The index is on track to end higher for a ninth straight session, the longest winning run since late 2006.
Banks were among the top gainers, with the DJ STOXX banking index up 2.8 percent, after Credit Suisse said it made a net profit of 1.6 billion Swiss francs ($1.50 billion) in the three months to the end of June, against an average forecast of 1.4 billion Swiss francs given in a Reuters poll. Credit Suisse was up 5.7 percent, while Standard Chartered, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale gained 1.9 to 3.5 percent.
"The balance is tilting to a more positive assessment and slowly ... investors are getting information that the economic picture is actually continuing to improve," Tammo Greetfeld, equity strategist at Unicredit Group.
"The start of the earnings season has been encouraging. Investors have now discovered that the (second-quarter earnings) were less bad in many cases than feared and more importantly there are quite a substantial number of companies that are giving a more upbeat outlook for the second half of the year."
Miners were also in demand, after slipping in the previous session. BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Eurasian Natural Resources rose between 3.5 and 6.2 percent.
Drugmakers also gained ground after Roche gave a bullish forecast for the next two years following its $47 billion acquisition of Genentech and said it would expand capacity for H1N1 flu drug Tamiflu. Roche was up 3 percent, while GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche Holding, Sanofi-Aventis and Shire rose 0.5 to 1.2 percent.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 rose 1.3 to 2.2 percent. (Additional reporting by Harpreet Bhal; editing by Karen Foster)