August 26, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 1, 1427

LONDON, Aug 25: European stock markets crept upwards on Friday in cautious trade ahead of a speech by US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, and after modest overnight gains on Wall Street, dealers said.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares nudged up 0.03 per cent to 5,870.70 points in early trade, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index climbed 0.05 per cent to 5,817.18 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.02 per cent to 5,113.72.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares won 0.11 per cent to 3,785.92 points.

The euro stood at 1.2771 dollars.

Markets were awaiting Bernanke's speech on global economic integration later Friday that may provide fresh clues for the US rate outlook.

US stocks, meanwhile, closed a touch higher Thursday despite a decline in new home sales and durable goods orders for big-ticket manufactured goods, traders said.

Japanese share prices closed slightly lower Friday, shedding early gains as investors turned cautious ahead of a speech from the Fed chief.

In London, miners and banks led the FTSE 100. Britain's fifth biggest high street bank Lloyds TSB gained 0.48 per cent to 525.5 pence owing to speculation that it could face a takeover bid.

Other banks gained on positive broker comments, with Royal Bank of Scotland winning 0.68 per cent to 1,777 pence and Barclays climbing 0.54 per cent to 647.5 pence.

In Frankfurt, German department store operator KarstadtQuelle fell 1.24 per cent to 15.87 euros on Friday after the group suffered a further setback in a long-running dispute over real estate seized by the Nazis in Berlin in the 1930s.

The Financial Times Deutschland reported that Germany's state asset authority, BARoV, had approved the Jewish Claims Conference's claim for damages for allegedly misappropriated property dating back to the Nazi era.

On Thursday in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.06 per cent at 11,304.46 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index won 0.11 per cent to 2,137.11.

The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 0.24 per cent to 1,296.06 points.—AFP