LONDON, Oct 23: Wall Street shares staged a spirited rebound on Thursday, sparking turnarounds in London and Paris after Asian markets again suffered big losses on global recession jitters.

In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back after an early slide and was up 2.4 per cent in midday trade at 8,722.31 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq had gained 1.12 per cent to reach 1,633.80.

Analysts said the turnaround was driven by the energy sector, which in turn was reacting to higher oil prices.

On Wall Street oil giant

Exxon shot up 6.71 per cent while rival Chevron added 7.09 per cent.

The oil-driven turnaround in New York had a positive impact in London, where the FTSE 100 closed with a gain of 1.16 per cent to finish at 4,087.83 while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.38 per cent to 3,310.87.

The Frankfurt Dax pared some of its losses but fell 1.12 per cent to close at 4,519.70.

Elsewhere there were gains of 0.74 per cent in Brussels and 1.09 per cent in Amsterdam. Share prices fell 0.15 per cent in Milan, 0.54 per cent on the Swiss Market Index and 2.05 per cent in Madrid.

Earlier Thursday prices tumbled in Asia and Europe despite fresh government measures to snuff out a financial crisis threatening the critical flow of credit to businesses.

On Thursday some of the world’s biggest companies gave voice to deep pessimism regarding their prospects in the months ahead.

“So long as there’s this rather blunt -- and perhaps rather realistic -- fear of a global recession looming, then there’s certainly scope that stocks will continue to struggle,” said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland in London.

Sentiment suffered from disappointing corporate news.—AFP