Publications
Partners
London - European stock markets rose on Thursday, mirroring gains across Asia, after the Federal Reserve indicated that it was in no rush to end its huge programme for stimulating the US economy.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares climbed 0.76 percent to stand at 6 554.65 points in afternoon deals.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 jumped 1.21% to 8,163.74 points and in Paris the CAC 40 grew 0.68% in value to 3 866.87 points.
Milan's MIB index gained 0.11% to 15 694.88 points.
Wall Street also opened in the green with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.56% and the tech heavy Nasdaq gaining 1.04%.
"After June's sell off in risk assets was attributed to seemingly hawkish comments from the Fed chairman last month, the July rally has built further momentum ... on the back of a much softer statement from the Fed chairman after markets closed last night," said Matt Basi, head of UK sales trading at CMC Markets UK.
Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the US central bank's stimulus drive would be kept in place "for the foreseeable future".
The news poured cold water on market expectations that the Fed would start to pull back on massive bond-buying later this year, which has sent global equity indices reeling in recent weeks.
Bernanke insisted that the Fed's easy-money policy was still necessary, because the unemployment rate at 7.6% was still too high and inflation was too low for comfort.
"Both the employment side and the inflation side are saying that we need to be more accommodating," he said, answering questions after a speech.
In foreign exchange trading on Thursday, the euro rose to $1.3015 from $1.2988 late in New York on Wednesday. The dollar dropped to ¥99.30 from ¥99.72.The price of gold increased to $1 280.75 an ounce from $1 256 Wednesday on the London Bullion Market.
