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Global stocks mostly up ahead of central bank talks

New York - Global stocks mostly rose on Monday, buoyed by a boost in oil prices, as traders looked to upcoming US and Japanese central bank policy meetings for hints of future action.

Bourses in Frankfurt, London and Paris posted handsome gains, while US equities were flat ahead of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting starting on Tuesday.

"It's just a Fed market at this time and we should not expect too much movement either way until the Fed is out of the way," said Peter Cardillo, chief economist at First Standard Financial Company.

Concern that years of cheap cash could be coming to an end has roiled markets this month.

Some Fed officials signalled their desire to push ahead with higher interest rates. Yet that sentiment is countered by tepid inflation levels and caution about lifting US rates at a time when other central banks are still enacting new stimulus.

That includes the possibility that the Bank of Japan will enact new measures to boost the economy at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

"By and large, most market participants don't expect the Fed to raise rates this week," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"That could make for one doozy of a surprise then if the Fed did, but completely upending the market with an interest rate hike would be out of character for the Yellen-led Fed."

Miners, oil in play

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index closed sharply higher, up 1.5% compared with the close on Friday.

Gainers including mining companies like Glencore and BHP Billiton, and petroleum companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, which climbed on higher oil prices.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 jumped 1.0% and the Paris CAC also regained some of last week's losses, closing 1.4% higher.

Mikael Jacoby, at Oddo Securities in Paris, said Monday's rebound in Europe was "mostly technical" and a reaction to price falls last week, themselves a result of profit-taking.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished unchanged, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.2%.

The Nasdaq was hit by a 1.3% decline in Apple, which gave back some of last week's 12% gain ahead of the launch of the latest iPhones.

Tokyo markets were shut on Monday for a public holiday.

Hong Kong ended 0.9% higher as investors returned from a three-day weekend to play catch-up with Friday's regional rally.

Shanghai, which was closed on Thursday and Friday, rose 0.8% and Singapore added 0.3%. 

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