August 16, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani 6, 1423

LONDON, Aug 15: European stocks soared on Thursday after hundreds of US bosses swore to the accuracy of their company accounts in a bid to turn the page on a recent spate of corporate accounting scandals.

Across the 12-nation euro zone, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rallied 3.7 per cent to 2,687.1 points in late trade, though dealers noted that the gains had been inflated by light trading volumes owing to the Assumption Day holiday.

The British FTSE 100 index of leading shares won 3.9 per cent to 4,331.7 points and the German DAX 30 index rose 3.1 per cent to 3,701.9 points.

The French CAC 40 index spiked up 4.4 per cent to 3,383.0 points despite another plunge in the share price of media giant Vivendi Universal.

European investors danced to the tune of Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average added another 0.8 per cent in early trading, extending strong gains seen the previous session. The technology-laden Nasdaq firmed 0.9 per cent.

In Asia, Tokyo shares gained 1.6 per cent and Hong Kong stocks won 2.6 per cent.

Shares were also bolstered by a sudden rush of US chief executives meeting a deadline set by the Securities and Exchange Commission to swear to the accuracy of their company accounts.

“There are some bulls on Wall Street who believe that the passing of the deadline without any major problems means that the accounting concerns can be consigned to history,” said Jeremy Batstone, head of research at NatWest Stockbrokers.

“The bulls would argue that the double-dip (recession) can be avoided and therefore the weakness that we’ve seen over the past few weeks represents an opportunity,” he told AFP.

But he warned: “This rather ignores the fact that economic data is weakening.

“We’re not out of the woods.”

One company missing out on the party was French media giant Vivendi Universal, whose share price plunged another 10.7 per cent to 10.62 euros, albeit off earlier lows.

The stock had already lost a quarter of its value on Wednesday after the group reported a net loss at 12.3 billion euros (12.2 billion dollars) for the first six months of 2002 and ratings agencies slashed its debt rating.

Aviation stocks were in focus after United Airlines said after the close of US trade that it was preparing for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing later this year.

Shares in Britain’s BAE Systems, which owns 20 per cent of airplane maker Airbus, fell 3.3 per cent to 290 pence.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which owns the remaining 80 per cent of Airbus, was up 1.9 per cent at 14.8 euros in Paris.—AFP