LONDON, Oct 28: World stock markets soared on Tuesday as investors hunted for bargains after days of big losses and took heart from prospects for a cut in US interest rates.

But analysts described trading as agitated as fears persisted that a worldwide recession was on the way following the near meltdown of the global financial system.

Following huge gains in Asia, European exchanges likewise rebounded and got a further boost when Wall Street opened stronger.

But the US trajectory was later capped by a news of a plunge in US consumer confidence to a record low, ringing alarms over the year-end holiday shopping season.

By mid-afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.67 per cent at 8,312.60 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.02 per cent to 1,521.22.

Asian equities staged an impressive bounce-back, led by Hong Kong where stocks rocketed 14.4 per cent, making up virtually all of the previous day’s losses.

In Europe, the London FTSE 100 index jumped 1.92 per cent to 3,926.38 points while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 1.55 per cent to end the day at 3,114.92 points.

The Frankfurt DAX, again powered by big gains for Volkswagen, soared 11.28 percent to 4,823.45 points.

Volkswagen shares set fresh records on Tuesday as Porsche geared up to take over Europe’s biggest carmaker.VW shares nearly doubled in value to 1,005.01 euros in early trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange in a shock wave generated by a Porsche statement on how and when it planned to take over the group.

Elsewhere in Europe there were gains of 0.68 per cent on the Swiss Market Index and 2.38 per cent in Brussels.

The market fell 1.30 per cent in Madrid and 2.43 per cent in Milan.—AFP