July 21, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 05, 1428

LONDON, July 20: Europe's main stock markets were mixed by the half-way stage on Friday after Wall Street had surged overnight. London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose by 0.25 per cent to 6,656.40 points, in Frankfurt the DAX 30 fell 0.13 per cent to 7,980.58 points and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.15 per cent to 6,056.15.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares decreased by 0.18 per cent to 4,514.64.

The euro stood at 1.3788 dollars.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had rallied Thursday to close above 14,000 points for the first time, as bullish investors cheered generally upbeat corporate earnings reports.

US shares rocketed higher following rosy profit reports, particularly from technology giant IBM, as Wall Street appeared to brush off lackluster economic news and nagging concerns about a housing market slump.

In London the FTSE's highest riser was Friends Provident. The financial services group jumped 3.58 per cent to 185.2 pence on talk of takeover interest, dealers said.

In Paris, French group Vallourec, which makes steel pipes, dived 3.9 per cent to 218.42 euros, as hopes of a full takeover faded.

Rumours were doing the rounds over the last few weeks that Arcelor Mittal would buy Vallourec, said a dealer at a major European broker.

Instead Vallourec said Friday it had agreed to sell only two French units to the world's biggest steel group, for an undisclosed amount.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow index spiked 0.59 per cent to close at 14,000.41 points on Thursday. Its move came two days after the index smashed the 14,000 barrier for the first time in intraday trading, and almost three months after the Dow first pierced the 13,000 barrier.

The other main Wall Street indices also notched up sizeable gains as the tech-rich Nasdaq increased 0.76 per cent, to a multiyear high of 2,720.04 points, and the broad-market Standard Poor's 500 gained 0.45 per cent to a record close of 1,553.08.

—AFP