October 06, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 23, 1428

LONDON, Oct 5: Europe’s main stock markets rose slightly on Friday in cautious morning trade with all eyes on the upcoming US employment figures. All major indices were higher with the exception of the Paris CAC 40.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares climbed 0.19 per cent to 6,560.40 points, while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 gained 0.17 per cent to 7,958.69.

In Paris, the CAC 40 index dipped 0.05 per cent to 5,801.37 points and the Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares advanced by 0.11 per cent to 4,425.28.

The euro stood at 1.4110 dollars, after hitting a record high 1.4283 dollars earlier in the week.

They added that Wall Street’s lacklustre performance overnight kept investors cautious before the closely-watched US labour market report.

Up until the payroll figures out of the US we’re not going to see much of anything really, said Mic Mills, a trader at Tradindex in reference to the London market.

All eyes are on Friday’s release of the non-farm payrolls data. Many analysts have upgraded their forecasts above the earlier consensus of 100,000 new jobs being created, following this week’s reasonably strong surveys from the Institute of Supply Management.

A stronger than expected reading is likely to give the dollar a short-term boost against the euro, as it would lower the probability that the Federal Reserve will cut its key fed funds rate again at its meeting later in October.

On the FTSE 100 meanwhile, British confectioner Cadbury Schweppes saw its share price jump early Friday by 2.14 per cent to 597.5 pence on a broker upgrade. Cadbury had on Wednesday said it plans to slash 700 jobs from plants in Britain and move production to Poland as it looks to cut costs.

In Paris, EADS rose 1.41 per cent to 22.28 euros as the company attempts to shrug off accusations of improper deals.

Thomas Enders, the newly installed chief executive of Airbus, on Friday denied insider trading in shares of the planemaker’s parent company EADS, according to an internal memo seen by AFP.

To be clear with you all, I never committed any insider trading and I have not been accused of insider trading by anyone, including by the Financial Markets Authority, he wrote in the memo addressed to all Airbus staff.—AFP