LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - European equities drifted higher in early trade on Wednesday to post gains for a fifth straight session, with banking shares featuring among the top gainers ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on monetary easing.
At 0809 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,095.00 points after hitting a six-month closing high in the previous session on encouraging company results.
"It's a herd mentality. Everybody thinks that this quantitative easing is going to push up prices of stocks and nobody wants to miss the rally," said Koen De Leus, strategist at KBC Securities, in Brussels.
"People will look at the amount and whether the Fed is going to provide some inflation targets. That would mean that the Fed won't stop buying until the inflation target is reached."
The Fed is likely to announce its plans on quantitative easing, with markets pricing in that the central bank will commit to buy at least $500 billion in Treasuries over five months. The scope and pace of bond purchase, however, is uncertain.
Among banks, Societe Generale rose 2.9 percent after saying it would not need a capital increase to meet tougher industry rules as it reported forecast-beating quarterly results. Lloyds , BNP Paribas and Natixis rose 0.7 to 1.4 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash)