LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - European shares ended higher on Wednesday, helped by strong mining stocks, and analysts said markets should rise even higher once visibility on issues such as the Libyan conflict and Japanese nuclear situation improves.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 0.3 percent higher at 1,111.00 points after trading in a wide range of 1,102.35-1,112.35. Volumes were 86 percent of its 90-day daily average.
Miners were the best performing sector, tracking gains in key base metals that rose on expectations of a supply deficit this year. The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Materials index rose 1.8 percent, while Xstrata was 3.5 percent higher.
"There is an unusual amount of uncertainty and as long as that prevails we have to live with fairly high volatility," said Klaus Wiener, chief economist at Generali Investments, which manages about $465 billion.
"The macro environment will remain sufficiently supportive for the markets to continue to drift higher, once visibility on issues such as Libya, Japan and the sovereign credit crisis improves. In relative terms, equity markets are a lot more attractive than government bonds."
(Reporting by Atul Prakash)