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London - Europe's main stock markets closed in the green on Wednesday in cautious deals before the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, dealers said.
London's FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip companies ended the session 0.76% higher at 6 621.06 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 added a slight 0.06% to finish at 8 275.97 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.15% to 3 992.69 points.
Despite the gains in London, Barclays closed down 1.17% to 287.9 pence as investors continued to react to news of a vast 12.8-billion hole in the British bank's balance sheet. Barclays has a market capitalisation of around 35.48bn.
The stock had already plunged by 5.74% on Tuesday.
In foreign exchange activity, the euro rose to $1.3269 from $1.3261 in New York late on Tuesday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell back to $1,314.50 an ounce from $1,324.15 on Tuesday.
"The two day meeting of the policy arm of the Federal Reserve comes to a conclusion today which may lead to more subdued market conditions as traders leave any decision making on both short and medium term direction until after the announcements," said CMC Markets analyst Nick Dale-Lace.
Asian markets mostly fell on Wednesday in the final hours before investors discover the Fed's plans for its massive stimulus programme.
Traders have remained cautious ahead of the central bank meeting, although most economists are confident the Fed's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will indicate that its $85-billion-a-month bond-buying policy will remain in place for the time being.
Ahead of the Fed announcement at 1800 GMT, markets digested a raft of economic data in Europe.
Unemployment held at record highs in the 17-nation eurozone in June but there was some hope of an improvement as the numbers of those out of work fell slightly, official data showed.
The overall eurozone jobless rate came in at 12.1%, unchanged from May, the Eurostat data agency said.
On a more upbeat note, the number of unemployed people fell by 24 000 to 19.26m, according to Eurostat.
In company news, shares in France's PSA Peugeot Citroen surged and ended the day up 6.7% at 9.60 euros on results showing an almost halving of losses in the first six months.
Shares in French group Schneider rose 3.1% to close at 59.81 after announcing an agreed bid worth 3.4bn to buy British electrical engineering firm Insensys.
Banking giant BNP Paribas saw its stocks lift 1.64% to 48.63 euros after a better-than-expected earnings report.
Aerospace group EADS reported strong overall figures for the first half and a name change to Airbus. Its shares rose by 1.4% to 44.88 euros.
In Germany, the giant industrial conglomerate Siemens named a new chief executive to restore credibility with shareholders. The company's share finished up 2.0% at 82.31 euros.
In Madrid, shares in Spain's second-biggest bank BBVA rose 0.5% to 7.12 euros after reporting a doubling in second-quarter net profits compared with the year-ago period.
In London, shares in Diageo shot up 3.2% to 2 054 pence after the world's biggest producer of alcoholic drinks said its annual net profits rallied by almost a third.
In Asia, Tokyo closed down 1.45% on profit-taking after the previous day's gains.
Seoul lost 0.16 percent and Hong Kong fell 0.32%, while Shanghai rose 0.19% in value.
In recent months, concerns about the future of the Fed's so-called quantitative easing programme have led to sharp swings in global markets.
But Fed chief Ben Bernanke has reiterated the central bank's intention only to wind down the scheme when the US economy can stand on its own two feet.
On Wall Street, US stocks were also higher. In midday trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44%, the broad-based S&P 500 added 0.47%, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.41 percent.
Later this week, on Thursday, investors will digest interest rate decisions from both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
