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Societe Generale, Barclays, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank were up by between 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent at 08:10 GMT shortly after the markets opened, Reuters reports.
As a result, the benchmark index was up 0.3 per cent to 1,059.14 points, reversing some of yesterday's losses.
News that talks regarding banking reform in the US have broken down helped the financial sector gain, but many investors are awaiting the release of economic data before making a move.
These include US monthly retail sales figures, which will be announced at 13:30 GMT.
The gains are largely the result of "rather lacklustre performance yesterday and [equities in] New York being relatively positive", remarked David Buik, senior partner at BGC Partners.
In London, the FTSE 100 stock market was largely unchanged in early trading, according to the news agency, rising 0.07 per cent to 5,621.07 points.
Posted by Greg Secker
