LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets have rebounded after heavy losses this week that were triggered by fears of a US-led economic slowdown, analysts said Thursday.
The move higher came as traders took their lead from a solid recovery in Asian markets earlier Thursday.
In morning trade, London's FTSE 100 index rose 0.83 percent to 5,992.10 points. The Paris CAC 40 added 0.66 percent to 5,266.08 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 won back 0.73 percent to 7,526.34 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone shares increased by 0.62 percent to 4,134.00.
The European single currency stood at 1.4613 dollars.
Wall Street endured fresh losses Wednesday after a US Federal Reserve report said that American economic growth had slowed and fresh data shone a spotlight on simmering inflationary pressures.
The reports fueled fears the world's largest economy could be entering a recession.
However, Tokyo bounced two percent higher on Thursday as investors hunted for bargains after four sessions of heavy losses, downplaying the latest drop on Wall Street, dealers said.
In London, the Home Retail Group was boosted after a positive trading update.
The retailer's shares shot 2.76 percent higher to 278.75 pence after saying that annual profit would be towards the upper end of market expectations.
In Paris, Alstom shares jumped 5.96 percent to 136.19 euros, with investors cheering higher-than-expected third-quarter sales for the French engineering group.
And in Frankfurt, Infineon led the risers, rebounding 6.06 percent to 6.83 euros after steep losses the previous day for the German semi-conductors giant.
In Asia on Thursday, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei-225 index gained 2.07 percent to close at 13,783.45 points, recovering from the previous day's drop to levels unseen since October 2005.
Dealers said Japanese exporters, which benefit from a weak currency, also welcomed the yen's fall from recent two-year highs against the dollar ahead of congressional testimony by US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
Hong Kong's key Hang Seng index closed up 2.72 percent at 25,114.98 points.
Across the Atlantic on Wednesday, the blue chip US Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.28 percent at 12,466.16 points, after diving by over two percent a day earlier.
The tech-laden Nasdaq composite lost a heftier 0.95 percent to 2,394.59 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index finished 0.56 percent lower at 1,373.20 points.
Stocks tumbled after the Federal Reserve's Beige Book survey said that US economic momentum had moderated during the end of 2007, in part due to "subdued" retail sales.
No comments:
Post a Comment