* Europe shares steady as energy gainers balance banks
* Oil hits 12-day high, then pares gains on output deal
* Chinese stocks hit three-week highs on stimulus hint
* Wall St seen opening higher after holiday
* Yen gains 0.5 percent vs dollar
By Nigel Stephenson
LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - European shares held steady on
Tuesday, with energy firms outpacing weak banks even as oil
prices gave up early gains after an agreement among four top
producers to freeze output was judged unlikely to have a big
impact on a global glut of crude.
The yen and the euro rose against the dollar in a sign of
investor wariness after last week's sell-off of risky assets.
However U.S. stock index futures ESc1 1YMc1 suggested
Wall Street, which was closed on Monday for a holiday, would
open higher.
Brent crude LCOc1 hit a 12-day high of $35.55 a barrel
after Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed to freeze
output to tackle a global oil glut if other major exporters
joined them. It last traded at $33.82, up 44 cents on the day,
as expectations for an immediate deal faded.
"Even if they do freeze production at January levels, you've
still got global inventory builds which are going to weigh on
prices. So whilst it's a positive step, I don't think it will
have a huge impact on supply/demand balances," said Energy
Aspects analyst Dominic Haywood.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 stocks index .FTEU3 ,
which rose 6 percent in the last two trading days, traded in and
out of positive territory and was last up 0.1 percent. The STOXX
Europe 600 oil and gas index .SXPP was up 0.8 percent, off
earlier highs.
The banking index .SX7P lost 1.2 percent. Standard
Chartered STAN.L fell 6.7 percent and Deutsche Bank
DBKGn.DE , at the centre of investor concerns last week over
the potential impact on banks of slowing economic growth and the
impact of negative interest rates, fell 3.3 percent.
Earlier, Chinese stocks closed with their biggest daily
percentage gain in more than three months. Remarks by Premier Li
Keqiang were interpreted as hinting at more stimulus for the
world's second-biggest economy, and China reported bank lending
rose to a record high in January.
The impact of an economic slowdown in China has been at the
heart of investor concerns that have seen world stocks
.MIWD00000PUS drop nearly 10 percent this year.
The mood has brightened somewhat this week, although some
analysts have struggled to pin down exactly why. They say such
threats as slowing global growth and the spread of negative
interest rates have not gone away.
"You've got a market that's torn between two forces at the
moment: they want risk appetite to improve, they want these
markets to go up but it's clear that there's not a uniformity of
view across the market," said BNY Mellon currency strategist
Neil Mellor.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS gained 0.9 percent. Mainland China shares hit
three-week highs .CSI300 , with the Shanghai Composite index
.SSEC posting its biggest daily percentage gain since Nov. 4.
Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday the economy faced great
challenges but that China had plenty of room to manoeuvre given
its high savings rate
Data showing Chinese banks extended a record 2.51 trillion
($385.40 billion) in new loans last month also helped stocks.
In Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei index .N225 followed its 7.2
percent gain on Monday with a more modest 0.2 percent rise, led
by a 16 percent surge in telecoms group SoftBank 9984.T , which
said it would buy back up to 14.2 percent of its own shares.
YEN IN FOCUS
In foreign exchange markets, the dollar weakened 0.5 percent
against the yen to around 114 yen. It remained well off a
15-month low of 111.99 yen hit last week, when investors piled
into the yen as a safe haven and expectations faded that the
Federal Reserve would raise interest rates this year.
The euro EUR= was flat at $1.1158, down from last week's
four-month high of $1.1377.
The appeal of low-risk government debt, also sought as a
shelter in troubled times, dimmed. German 10-year bond yields
DE10YT=TWEB rose 3.2 basis points to 0.27 percent, having
fallen as far as 0.13 percent last week.
U.S. equivalents US10YT=RR yielded 1.78 percent, compared
with 1.75 percent at the close of Friday's U.S. trading session.
Gold, which had its best week in four years last week,
earlier dropped to $1,199 an ounce XAU= but last traded at
$1,1213.