LONDON - European stock markets rose in early dealing on Friday after an overnight rally on Wall Street and amid a retreat in oil prices and a lack of corporate news, dealers said.
The London FTSE 100 index gained 0.50 percent to 4,986.90 points, the Frankfurt DAX 30 added 0.68 percent to 4,367.04 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.56 percent to 4,060.64.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares climbed 0.55 percent to 3,070.60 points.
The euro was strong at 1.3419 against the dollar.
US stocks ended mixed on Thursday when investors remained cautious despite a retreat in oil prices that helped ease inflation concerns.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.42 percent to 10,851.51 points while the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite dipped 0.08 percent to 2,059.72.
The broad-market Standard and Poor`s 500 index drifted up 0.19 percent to close at 1,209.25 points.
Market action was choppy as investors mulled the implications of an unexpected rise in weekly unemployment claims by 17,000 to 327,000.
Although this briefly eased concerns about wage inflation, investor jitters resurfaced about the economic landscape in the face of high oil and commodity prices. But a sharp drop in oil prices helped the broad market recover.
Oil futures continued to retreat Friday, following a surge this week, as profit taking set in. New York`s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, dropped 38 cents to 53.16 dollars a barrel in electronic deals.
Meanwhile in Asia, Tokyo`s benchmark Nikkei-225 index closed 0.50 percent higher to 11,923.89 points on Friday, led by hi-techs after US chipmaking giant Intel Corp. upgraded its earnings forecast for the current quarter.
Hong Kong`s key Hang Seng Index closed up 0.25 percent at 13,890.93 points.
In London trade, Whitbread soared 8.26 percent to 970 pence after the hotel and leisure group confirmed Friday that its Marriott hotels in Britain were up for sale.
The Times newspaper reported that Whitbread was to sell the Marriott portfolio for more than 1.0 billion pounds (1.4 billion euros, 1.9 billion dollars) to return cash to shareholders.
And in Frankfurt, Lufthansa rose 2.61 percent to 11.38 euros on news of a possible tie-up between the German flag carrier and the troubled airline Swiss.
The negotiations could lead to possible cooperation between the two carriers beginning in the second or third quarter of this year and then to a possible fully fledged merger, sources close to the matter said.
Swiss rocketed by over 18.0 percent to 10.3 Swiss francs in Zurich trade.
Elsewhere, Thales shares fell 0.95 percent to 32.24 euros in Paris trade despite the French electronics group Thales posting a 77-percent rise in net 2004 profit to 198 million euros compared with the previous year. The result was lower than analysts` expectations.
03/11/2005 12:48 GMT