LONDON, May 23: Europe's main stock markets called up gains on Wednesday amid merger and acquisition chatter in the telecommunications sector, dealers said. In late morning trade, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares added 0.41 per cent to 6,633.90 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose 0.59 per cent to 7,704.89 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.43 per cent to 6,115.75, nearing the half-way mark.The euro stood at 1.3440 dollars.
Wall Street had ended mixed on Tuesday, with key indices falling short of record highs as billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian made a new play to expand his already substantial Las Vegas casino holdings.
Japanese share prices eked out a third straight daily gain Wednesday thanks to a weak yen, which lifted exporters, and upbeat earnings forecasts from the major banks, dealers said.
In Frankfurt on Wednesday, shares in Deutsche Telekom rose 2.54 per cent to 13.30 euros after Spanish newspaper Expansion reported that the company was looking to acquire the Dutch mobile phone business of French telecom operator France Telecom.
The paper said, without citing sources, that France Telecom's Orange division has made an offer to Deutsche Telekom that would involve the partial exchange its Ya.com Spanish unit for Orange Nederland.
Meanwhile, German media had reported last week that British mobile phone giant Vodafone was set to buy Ya.com for about 400 million euros.
In Paris, France Telecom shares added 1.72 per cent to 22.5 euros, while Vodafone stock jumped 4.22 per cent to 150.7 pence in London.
In US deals on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a slight 0.02 per cent at 13,539.95 after flirting with another all-time record high.
The Dow has struck a series of record highs in recent months, largely fuelled by a flood of mergers and acquisitions.
The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.36 per cent to end at 2,588.02 while the broad-market SP 500 index lost 0.06 per cent to a close of 1,524.12, but still within distance of its all-time high of 1,527.46 set in 2000.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei-225 index of leading shares climbed 0.14 per cent to 17,705.12 points.
Hong Kong's key Hang Seng Index closed down 0.22 per cent at 20,798.97 points on caution amid US-China talks, dealers said.
In Washington on Tuesday, the United States called on China to step up economic reforms at high-level talks between the two nations, but Beijing cautioned Washington against politicizing trade relations between the two powers.—AFP
