July 28, 2006	Friday	Rajab 1, 1427

LONDON, July 27: European stock markets rose strongly on Thursday, with dealers taking their lead from a batch of positive earnings releases after overnight falls on Wall Street.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares jumped 0.85 per cent to 5,926.90 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index rallied 1.03 per cent to 5,640.57 points and the Paris CAC 40 advanced 0.86 per cent to 4,985.34.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares increased 0.82 per cent to 3,670.48 points.

Wall Street indices closed slightly lower Wednesday after two days of strong gains as investors mulled US earnings reports and a Federal Reserve survey pointing to a cooling economy, dealers said.

Across Europe, investors digested a plethora of earnings results.

Rolls-Royce topped the FTSE 100 in London, surging 5.10 per cent to 443 pence, after the British aerospace group posted a 15.8-per cent surge in net profits for the first half of the year owing to a strong order book.

Net profit jumped to 617 million pounds (901 million euros, 1.147 billion dollars) in the six months to June 30, compared with 118 million pounds in the same period last year, Rolls-Royce said.

Elsewhere, Kingfisher increased 3.49 per cent to 244.75 pence after the biggest European home-improvements retailer issued an encouraging second-quarter trading update.

Royal Dutch Shell's 'B' share price advanced 2.68 per cent to 1,992 pence after the Anglo-Dutch energy major said that net profit, excluding changes to the value of its energy inventories, leapt 36.0 per cent to 6.314 billion dollars (4.955 billion euros) in the second quarter.

In Paris, French digital technology group Thomson soared 6.19 per cent to 13.39 euros after slashing a net loss in the first half of the year.

The group announced a loss of 71 million euros (90 million dollars) in the first six months of the year, compared with 438 million euros in the same period of last year.

The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 edged down 0.04 per cent to 1,268.40.—AFP