European shares march higher on energy, chipmakers boost

(Reuters) - Oil stocks and chipmakers drove European shares higher on Thursday, with the latter getting a lift from upbeat preliminary results by South Korea's Samsung, while investors awaited minutes of the ECB's meeting for clues on rate hikes.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 index was up 0.8% by 0718 GMT, after closing 1.7% higher in the previous session as a strike by Norway's oil and gas workers came to an end.

Semiconductor firms STMicroelectronics, BE Semiconductors, ASM International, ASML Holding gained between 2.4% and 3.3% after Samsung Electronics Co Ltd posted its best April-June profit since 2018, underpinned by strong memory chip sales to server customers.

Shares of Tenaris jumped 5.4% to power the European oil and gas sub-index after Jefferies raised its price target on the stock.

All eyes are on minutes by the European Central Bank due at 1130 GMT. They will come ahead of the July meeting where the ECB is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points in its effort to tackle soaring inflation.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)