* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.4 pct after Monday's 1.7 pct slide
* Burberry, LVMH, SKF up after strong results
* Speculation lingers that Greece will restructure debt
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Upbeat corporate results helped European shares to rebound on Tuesday from hefty falls a day earlier, led by strong sales figures from luxury goods groups.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed up 0.4 percent at 1,117.10 points, recouping some losses after hitting a three-week closing low on Monday when Standard & Poor cut its credit outlook on the United States to negative.
The index gave back some gains in late trading as shares on Wall Street slipped from earlier highs.
Robust quarterly earnings bolstered confidence in the corporate outlook, with better-than-expected sales helping luxury firms Burberry and LVMH gain 6 and 5 percent.
Upbeat results from manufacturing bellwether SKF helped alleviate worries about the impact of rising raw material prices on industrial firms' margins, with the world's top bearings maker rising 6.4 percent to the top of the leaderboard.
"Global companies, particularly those who manufacture things, are going to be reporting more profit and cash. There's plenty of scope for exporting at current levels for the pound and the U.S. dollar," said a London-based fund manager who has around $120 million in assets under management.
Despite the gains in equities, some caution about the euro zone's debt troubles prevailed in wider financial markets, with growing talk that Greece would have to restructure its debt lifting short-dated Greek bond yields.
The Greek banking index rose 1.2 percent after hefty falls in the previous session, though the index trades around its lowest levels since early 1997.
UNDERLYING FUNDAMENTALS
Highlighting the underlying strength in the economy, the euro zone's composite PMI, a broader measure of the private sector often used as a guide to growth, beat forecasts in April, in a sign that economic fundamentals could continue to support corporate growth and share price gains in the medium-term.
Economic recovery has helped the FTSEurofirst 300 rise 73.2 percent since hitting a lifetime low in March 2009, but the index is expected to tread water in the short-term as leading indicators slow from their peaks and investors anticipate a withdrawal of monetary stimulus in the United States.
Analysts said technical indicators pointed to a bout of weakness for equity markets in the next few weeks, from which the market could rebound significantly to make fresh highs.
"We are expecting an upward break above 3,100 (on the Euro STOXX 50 index) in the coming weeks to next few months," said Roelof-Jan Van den Akker, senior technical analyst at ING.
The euro zone's blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index closed up 0.3 percent at 2,857.61 points.
Michael Gordon, chief investment officer for equities at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, said he believed equities had priced in many of the risks and would hand in 5 to 10 percent returns in the next 12 months.
"Equities are up to speed with events ... There will be fewer positive or negative surprises," said Gordon, who is responsible for 50 billion euros' worth of investment. (Editing by Will Waterman)