LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets were mostly higher in early trading as some robust company results pleased markets worried by a rise in oil prices and a weaker dollar.
The London FTSE 100 index rose 0.44 percent at 4,817.0 points and the Frankfurt DAX 30 gained 0.15 percent to 4,189.77 points, though in Paris the CAC 40 dropped 0.13 percent to 3,839.27 points.
The euro scaled a new all-time peak of 1.3074 dollars, before easing back to 1.3055 dollars.
On Wall Street, US stocks ended higher Wednesday but off highs of the day as a spike in oil and concerns over a falling dollar reined in a rally spurred by Kmart's 11 billion dollar merger with Sears, strong Hewlett-Packard earnings and solid economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.59 percent at 10,549.57 points, while the tech-laden Nasdaq closed higher 1.01 percent at 2,099.68.
Despite the oil price spike, the Dow industrials closed at its highest level since April while the Nasdaq ended at its highest level since late January.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index climbed 0.55 percent to 1,181.94 points.
The price of a barrel of light sweet crude for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 73 cents to close at 46.84 dollars as a snapshot of US oil stockpiles rekindled concerns about winter supplies.
In Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 0.44 percent to 11,082.42 points on Thursday, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index closed down 0.18 percent at 13,799.82 points.
In London shares in brewing giant SABMiller rose 3.31 percent to 875 pence as the company's interims pleased investors.
The group reported first half pretax profits of 1.05 billion dollars from 800 million a year earlier, with adjusted earnings per share rising to 48.8 cents against market expectations of 42.0-45.0 cents.
But shares in German software maker SAP fell 2.06 percent to 136.61 euros after chief financial officer Werner Brandt told an analyst conference that the company may not reach its 30 percent profit margin target until 2007.
"The company said that instead of reaching a 30 percent profit margin in 2006, this might be delayed until 2007," Kevin Ashton, an analyst at Deutsche Bank said.
Virgin Mobile rose 1.38 percent to 202.75 pence in London after the recently floated mobile phone operator posted an 18 percent rise in interim sales to 256.7 million pounds, with operating profit up 14 percent to 47.3 million.
11/18/2004 - 10:54 GMT - AFP