* FTSEurofirst 300 index rises 0.4 percent
* Suez, Safran, Standard Life gain after results
* SAP falls after earnings news disappoints
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Thursday to an eight-week closing high, boosted by strong results from some companies including Suez Environnement and on hopes the U.S. central bank will support the economy.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed up 0.4 percent at 1,153.70 points, to close at the highest level since early March, but volume was only 95 percent of its 90-day average ahead of a four-day holiday weekend in the UK.
The market initially got a boost after the U.S. central bank indicated late on Wednesday it was in no rush to start to scale back the monetary stimulus support for the economy, triggering a fall in the dollar to a three-year low.
"European markets seem to be feeling pretty robust," Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital, which has $500 million assets under management.
"My view is as long as (Federal Reserve chairman) Bernanke keeps printing money and the dollar continues to weaken, that stocks are very well underpinned."
Positive European earnings news gave the market some support. Out of the 53 companies on the STOXX Europe 600 that have reported first-quarter results, 57 percent of them have either beaten or met analysts' forecasts.
The utility sector featured among the top performers, with Suez Environnement, the world's second-largest utility, rising 4 percent after quarterly sales beat expectations.
Financials were also in demand after earnings news. Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank rose 4.8 percent after quarterly net profit beat forecasts, while insurer Standard Life gained 3.2 percent after sales came in above expectations.
Elsewhere, French aerospace and defence group Safran jumped 6.2 percent after quarterly revenue grew 10.5 percent, which was slightly above several analysts' forecasts.
On the technical front, charts signalled that the Euro STOXX 50, the euro zone's blue chip index, up 0.9 percent at 3,005.33 points was expected to post further gains.
Tom Pelc, head of technical strategy at RBS, said the index may rise to 3,170 points -- the 50 percent retracement of a move since the 2007 peak to the 2009 trough.
SAP DISAPPOINTS
However, gains were limited as not all earnings news was on the positive side. German business software maker SAP lost 5.7 percent after first-quarter earnings disappointed expectations.
Elsewhere, the world's top magazine paper maker UPM-Kymmene Oyj lost 7.1 percent after it made a smaller than expected profit and warned that cost inflation this year may be worse than previously expected.
The market also briefly pared back some gains in afternoon trade after U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product growth came in below forecasts.
Some analysts said in looking at the bigger macro economic picture that they were cautious on earnings ahead.
"I am wary ... U.S. GDP data was poor," Jeremy Batstone-Carr, strategist at Charles Stanley said. "The macro picture is gloomy and it is going to be tough work for equities to make significant headway."
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index was flat, Germany's DAX was up 1 percent and France's CAC 40 rose 0.9 percent. (Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Greg Mahlich)