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The last-minute pounding Wall Street gave Google’s shares was caused by “erroneous orders” that Nasdaq says it is canceling.

Minutes before the closing bell Tuesday, a flurry of trades sent the Web search leader’s stock plummeting 10 per cent to close at $341.43.

A spokeswoman for exchange parent Nasdaq OMX Group told Reuters in an email the “erroneous orders” that caused the abrupt plunge “were triggered by orders routed from another exchange.” She did not say which exchange routed the trade orders, but added the decision to cancel trades cannot be appealed.

The exchange raised Google’s closing price to $400.52 - a 5 per cent gain for the day- and canceled all trades below that amount and above $425.29 between 3:57 pm and 4:02 pm EDT.

A Google spokesman said the company declined to comment on the trading spike.

European shares rose early on Wednesday, led by banks on hopes that the U.S. Senate will pass a new version of a $700 billion bailout package for the embattled financial sector later in the day.

By 0715 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.7 percent at 1,070.94.

Banking stocks were the main gainers on the index. Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) were 0.7-6.2 percent higher.

The U.S. Senate will vote on Wednesday night on a new version of the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street, rekindling hopes that the credit crisis can be stemmed before claiming yet more banks and causing further damage to the global economy. [ID:nSP361078]

“The market is all about confidence and investors need to just hang in there and not be swayed by different rumours. The worrying sign is that it is based on no more than a hopeful optimism without much basis to it at the moment,” said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.

“This is the eye of the storm until we wait for the decision from the U.S. Senate and see how the restructuring takes place.”

The mining sector gained as copper <MCU3=LX> rose 1.4 percent.

BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was up 3 percent and Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was 7 percent higher after Australia’s competition watchdog cleared BHP’s proposed around $114 billion bid for Rio, saying it was unlikely to substantially lessen competition. [ID:nSYU005209]

Lonmin (LMI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) slumped 27.5 percent after Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it would not make a formal offer for the group. Xstrata was up 9.9 percent.