February 02, 2007	Friday	Muharram 13, 1428

LONDON, Feb 1: European stocks soared on Thursday as participants seized on positive earnings news, unchanged US interest rates and encouraging signs that the US economy was on track, analysts said.

The FTSE 100 surged higher in early trade today, following the Federal Reserve decision to keep US benchmark rates on hold at 5.25 per cent, said Sucden analyst Michael Davies.

London's FTSE 100 index of top shares soared 1.08 per cent to 6,270.40 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index rose 0.81 per cent to 6,844.24 and in Paris the CAC 40 leapt 1.07 per cent to 5,668.32 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip shares increased 0.86 per cent to 4,214.56 points. The euro stood at 1.3012 dollars.

A powerful Wall Street rally lifted the main US stock indexes after the Federal Reserve seemed to confirm that the US economy was on a firm footing, suggesting that no interest rate increase was imminent.

In London trading, Royal Dutch Shell saw its 'A' shares jump 2.75 percent to 1,753 pence after the Anglo-Dutch oil group posted record annual net profit Thursday of $25.44 billion (19.54 billion euros), but saw output falter owing to production problems in Nigeria.

In the same sector, BP shares added 0.56 per cent to 537.50 pence while Total won 1.45 per cent to 52.55 euros in Paris trade.

France Telecom soared 1.75 per cent to 21.57 euros after posting a 7.5-per cent gain in sales last year, powered by its mobile phone unit and a strong performance in emerging markets.

And Axa shares leapt 2.44 per cent to 33.13 euros after issuing a strong full-year sales update.

In Wednesday's US trade, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt to an intraday high of 12,657.02 and then closed with a gain of 0.79 percent at 12,621.69 points -- just below its all-time closing high set a week earlier.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq rose 0.22 pc to 2,463.93 and the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 advanced 0.66pc to 1,438.24. Both indexes were close to multi-year highs.—AFP