* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.4 percent; highest since late April
* Miners among top gainers as weaker dollar boosts metals
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By Atul Prakash
LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - European shares climbed to their highest in more than five months on Thursday, with growing expectations of more U.S. monetary easing and hopes of a robust earnings season boosting demand for riskier assets.
The technical outlook improved, with a key index breaching strong resistance and the 50-day moving average getting closer to its 200-day moving average -- generally a positive sign.
At 0848 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,090.76 points after touching a high of 1,094.13, the highest since late April.
It climbed 1.4 percent on Wednesday and is up 4.3 percent this year.
Appetite for risky assets such as equities jumped, with the VDAX-NEW volatility index falling 9.5 percent to its lowest in almost three years. The lower the index, which is based on sell and buy options on Frankfurt's top-30 stocks, the higher the market's desire to take risk.
"Investor appetite will be helped by consensus-beating results, while the macro environment is being supported by the fact that the authorities appear ready to provide the required support to secure the economic recovery," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Wealth.
"And that should be good news for heavyweight sectors, especially for miners."
Miners featured among the top gainers as the STOXX Europe Basic Resources index rose 0.9 percent, tracking a sharp gain in metals prices.
Gold hit a record high, silver climbed to a 30-year peak and copper rose to its highest level in 27 months on a steep fall in the dollar, making commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies.
BHP Billiton, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and ENRC rose 0.3-1.8 percent.
"Stock indexes are breaking out of their six-month range, and this has triggered a sharp rise in risk appetite," says David Thebault, head of quantitative sales trading at Global Equities in Paris.
"With Bund yields at record lows, investors can't ignore the strong dividend yields that equities offer. The breakout of the range is probably the catalyst investors have been waiting for to come back to stocks and capture the high dividend yieds."
EARNINGS BOOST
Strong company results improved sentiment. Intel forecast upbeat fourth-quarter sales and margins on Tuesday, JPMorgan on Wednesday posted a 23 percent rise in quarterly profit and LVMH beat forecasts on Thursday, with a 14 percent rise in comparable third-quarter sales.
The market was also helped by expectations that U.S. policy makers were preparing to inject more cash into the economy.
The technical picture improved as the blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 breached key resistance of 2,740.32, its 61.8 percent retracement of an April high to a May low, on Wednesday and rose about its August peak of 2,849.45 on Thursday.
The index's 50-day moving average, now at 2,740.71, moved closer to the 200-day moving average at 2,764.26, raising prospects that the 50-day average might cross the 200-day average, which would mean a bullish signal.
"Technical outlook is good because we have buy signals after a sideways movement during the last six months. There is high momentum to the upside," said Achim Matzke, technical strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 hit its highest in more than five months, Germany's DAX rose to a two-year high and France's CAC 40 rose to its highest since May. (Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson in Paris; Editing by Michael Shields)