* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.3 percent
* Portugal 2-year bond auction offers little surprise
* EADS rises on outlook, new orders
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on
By Josie Cox
Frankfurt, March 9 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on earnings and deal news on Wednesday, although oil price and euro zone debt concerns, after Portugal's latest debt auction, acted to cap gains and was set to weigh further on sentiment.
At 1224 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.3 percent at 1,150.65 points, after the index ended up 0.3 percent on Tuesday.
Leading the index higher was Germany's DAX, up 0.2 percent, led by bumper results from airline Lufthansa and Franco-German Airbus parent EADS.
"Europe has seen some strong earnings today, especially out of Germany," said a Frankfurt-based trader. "Lufthansa's positive dividend news as well as upbeat earnings from EADS and Symrise are pushing the large and mid-cap indexes."
The primary focus for investors in the morning session had been the latest debt auction from the euro zone periphery, which eventually got away, although at levels suggesting Portugal could still need a European Union bailout.
Portugal's borrowing costs soared in the auction of September 2013 bonds, from a previous sale six months ago, also surpassing the 5.396 percent yield paid on a longer maturity sold in January but investors were mildy relieved.
"This is probably ever so slightly better than the jittery market had feared, but does not mark a turning point," rate strategist Peter Chatwell at Credit Agricole said.
After Moody's downgraded Greece earlier this week, the Portugal auction was in focus.
"Ireland and Portugal may well be next," analyst Heino Ruland of Ruland Research said.
"The European financial crisis is certainly taking centre stage again," ETX Capital senior trader Markus Huber added.
After the auction, Portugal's main stock index PSI 20 was up 0.1 percent, while the Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index was up 0.7 percent.
UPBEAT EARNINGS
The EADS and Lufthansa results and positive numbers from Asian peer Cathay Pacific overnight helped boost airlines on Wednesday too.
Air France and International Airlines Group both rose strongly, up 2.8 percent and 3.1 percent, outperforming a 1.8 percent rise in the STOXX 600 European travel and leisure index .
The index is down about 3.5 percent since reaching a 29-month high on Feb. 18, while U.S. crude oil prices have gained more than 20 percent over the same period, a rally fuelled by unrest in Libya and fears of contagion to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
"Despite the continued fighting in Libya, making a normalisation of Libya's oil production soon an unlikely prospect, concerns about supply tightening have eased a little," Eugen Weinberg, the head of commodity research at Commerzbank said.
Energy stocks accordingly lost ground, with BP down 0.4 percent and Repsol down 1.2 percent. (Additional reporting by Joanne Frearson and Simon Jessop in London; Blaise Robinson in Paris; Lisbon Newsroom; Editing by Hans Peters)