LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets drove higher after a steadier performance by Asian shares and Wall Street overnight, but concerns lingered over the troubled US economy, dealers said Tuesday.
London's FTSE 100 index was up 0.56 percent at 6,370.90 points in early afternoon trade, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.66 percent to 7,868.40 points and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed by 0.98 percent to 5,506.23.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone shares rallied 0.50 percent to 4,304.92 points.
The European single currency rose to 1.4726 dollars.
In London, the FTSE was winning support from heavyweight mining stocks.
"Miners are pushing the FTSE up on the back of new record gold prices and rising copper prices," said Nathan Miller, a trader at CMC Markets.
The price of gold hit an all-time peak of 876 dollars an ounce on Tuesday owing to rebounding oil prices, a weak dollar and geopolitical tensions, traders said.
Gold later settled back to 872.91 dollars an ounce on the London Bullion Market.
On the FTSE, Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton jumped 2.15 percent to 1,523 pence and peer Anglo American gained 1.31 percent to 2,939 pence.
In earlier Asian trade, investors recovered some poise after wobbling earlier in the week over fears of a US economic recession, but such concerns continued to cast a long shadow.
Japanese share prices edged up 0.19 percent and Taiwan was up 1.01 percent.
But the region's other key markets ended down, including a 0.5 percent fall in Australia.
The US has been hit by a mortgage default crisis in the subprime sector comprising riskier borrowers. The crisis has led to billions of dollars in losses, a credit crunch and a housing market downturn.
Analysts fear the US, a key buyer of Asian exports, is heading for a recession.
US stocks had closed mainly higher Monday in choppy trade as hopes for a positive corporate earnings season helped offset negative investor sentiment about the economy.
Speculation about a possible economic stimulus package that could be proposed by the US administration may have helped lift the market out of its malaise.
At the end of a volatile session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.21 percent at 12,827.49 points, in a modest rebound following a 4.2 percent slide in the blue-chip index in the past week.
The Nasdaq composite lost 0.21 percent to 2,499.46 points, while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.32 percent to 1,416.18.
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