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London - Global stocks rose and the yen tumbled on Friday after the Group of Seven agreed on joint intervention to weaken the Japanese currency and calm markets worried about Japan's nuclear crisis.
European shares tracked a rally in Japanese equities, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index rising 0.6%, although further gains were limited by concern over the conflict in oil-producing North Africa and the Middle East.
"The G7 intervention is calming the markets, but we still need a few days of consolidation to think we are over the worst of it," Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index in London, said.
"It is just helping sentiment, and stocks sensitive to risk will push on. But optimism is going to be guarded as there are no firm resolutions surrounding the Japanese nuclear crisis and the Middle East, and anything can happen on the weekend."
Brent crude jumped by $2 to near $117 a barrel on fears of rising geopolitical tension in the oil-rich Middle East and North Africa, after the United Nations approved military action to contain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The G7 show of solidarity to support Japan as it struggles to cope with its biggest crisis since World War Two comes a day after the yen soared to a record ¥76.25 in chaotic trading. It is the first coordinated currency intervention by the G7 in a decade.
The dollar rose more than 3% to ¥81.63, not far from a session high of around ¥81.98, following the G7 announcement, which came just as the Tokyo stock market opened. But the US unit quickly pared its gains.
The euro jumped to a session high of ¥115.50 according to Reuters data, from around ¥114.70, but the rally faded with some traders saying the scale of intervention was so far a fairly tame effort to stem the yen's surge.
"(It's) more like doing smalls and trying to use rhetoric to maximise the effect," said Richard Wiltshire, a currency trader at ETX Capital in London. "It would need to be concerted and aggressive....and even then I'm sceptical."
Moves on Middle East
Japan's Nikkei share index climbed 2.7%, recouping some of the week's stinging losses as Japan reeled from an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant crisis.
World stocks as measured by MSCI were last up 0.2%, with the upward trend curbed by heightening geopolitical tension in the Middle East.
German government bonds and US Treasury prices reversed earlier losses, driving yields lower with investors wary about going into the weekend short of safe havens given escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East and the events in Japan.
Brent was less than $4 away from a 2-and-a-half-year high of almost $120 reached on February 24, when an uprising against Gaddafi shut down at least two-thirds of Libya's oil output.
The UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session on Thursday, passed a resolution endorsing a no fly zone to halt government troops now about 100 km from Benghazi.
It also authorised "all necessary measures" - code for military action - to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
Spot gold rose by as much as $11.35 to $1 413.75 but was still off a record around $1 444 last week on high oil prices, fears about civil war in Libya, unrest in the Middle East and renewed worries about sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
European shares tracked a rally in Japanese equities, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index rising 0.6%, although further gains were limited by concern over the conflict in oil-producing North Africa and the Middle East.
"The G7 intervention is calming the markets, but we still need a few days of consolidation to think we are over the worst of it," Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index in London, said.
"It is just helping sentiment, and stocks sensitive to risk will push on. But optimism is going to be guarded as there are no firm resolutions surrounding the Japanese nuclear crisis and the Middle East, and anything can happen on the weekend."
Brent crude jumped by $2 to near $117 a barrel on fears of rising geopolitical tension in the oil-rich Middle East and North Africa, after the United Nations approved military action to contain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The G7 show of solidarity to support Japan as it struggles to cope with its biggest crisis since World War Two comes a day after the yen soared to a record ¥76.25 in chaotic trading. It is the first coordinated currency intervention by the G7 in a decade.
The dollar rose more than 3% to ¥81.63, not far from a session high of around ¥81.98, following the G7 announcement, which came just as the Tokyo stock market opened. But the US unit quickly pared its gains.
The euro jumped to a session high of ¥115.50 according to Reuters data, from around ¥114.70, but the rally faded with some traders saying the scale of intervention was so far a fairly tame effort to stem the yen's surge.
"(It's) more like doing smalls and trying to use rhetoric to maximise the effect," said Richard Wiltshire, a currency trader at ETX Capital in London. "It would need to be concerted and aggressive....and even then I'm sceptical."
Moves on Middle East
Japan's Nikkei share index climbed 2.7%, recouping some of the week's stinging losses as Japan reeled from an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant crisis.
World stocks as measured by MSCI were last up 0.2%, with the upward trend curbed by heightening geopolitical tension in the Middle East.
German government bonds and US Treasury prices reversed earlier losses, driving yields lower with investors wary about going into the weekend short of safe havens given escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East and the events in Japan.
Brent was less than $4 away from a 2-and-a-half-year high of almost $120 reached on February 24, when an uprising against Gaddafi shut down at least two-thirds of Libya's oil output.
The UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session on Thursday, passed a resolution endorsing a no fly zone to halt government troops now about 100 km from Benghazi.
It also authorised "all necessary measures" - code for military action - to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
Spot gold rose by as much as $11.35 to $1 413.75 but was still off a record around $1 444 last week on high oil prices, fears about civil war in Libya, unrest in the Middle East and renewed worries about sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
