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* Barclays rises on Exane upgrade, boosts banking sector
* PostNL surges after its Q2 results
* Airbus shares fall on UK corruption probe
By Sudip Kar-Gupta
LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - European stock markets rose onMonday, propped up by gains in the shares of major banks.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.3 percent,with traders also saying stocks were being supported by a rallyon U.S. markets, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hittingrecord highs after strong jobs data on Friday.
The STOXX Europe 600 Bank index advanced 1 percent,helped by a 2.8 percent rise at Barclays after Exane BNP Paribasupgraded Barclays to "outperform" from "neutral".
Shares in Dutch postal service operator PostNL surged 12 percent, the top performer on the STOXX 600 index,after the company confirming its full-year outlook, whileanalysts also welcomed a surprise improvement in its equityposition.
Airbus shares fell 1.7 percent after Britain'sSerious Fraud Office launched a formal investigation intosuspected fraud, bribery and corruption in connection with itscommercial plane sales.
According to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine, 61 percentof companies on the STOXX 600 index have beaten or met forecastswith their second quarter results so far, although thoseearnings are down 15 percent from last year on average.
"There's plenty of confidence over in the States, and that'sbeen helping Europe, but I'd still be on the defensive sideconcerning European markets and I'd be looking to sell rallies,"said Berkeley Futures' associate director Richard Griffiths.
"There's still much macroeconomic uncertainty in Europe."
While the STOXX 600 has recovered much of the ground lost inthe immediate aftermath of Britain's vote in June to quit theEuropean Union, the index remains down by 6 percent so far in2016.
Andreas Clenow, chief investment officer at ACIES AssetManagement in Zurich, echoed Griffiths' view of preferring U.S.to European shares at present.
"The U.S. markets look pretty healthy. We keeping makingrecord highs in the U.S, but the European stock markets lookmuch more sluggish," said Clenow.
(Additional reporting by Wout Vergauwen; editing by JohnStonestreet)
