LONDON, July 19: Europe's main stock markets rebounded on Thursday in the wake of a recovery for Japanese share prices. London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose 0.91 per cent to 6,626.60 points in early afternoon trading.In Frankfurt the DAX 30 gained 1.10 per cent to 7,980.69 points, the Paris CAC 40 climbed 0.85 per cent to 6,047.12 points and the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares increased by 0.83 per cent to 4,509.36.

The euro stood at $1.3810, close to its record high of 1.3833, reached on Wednesday.

European stock markets had been rattled on Wednesday, mirroring losses on Wall Street, after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said a housing slump in the US would drag on growth into next year.

In London, attention fell on Vodafone, which on Thursday said it had won 9.1 million new subscribers during its first quarter owing to strong growth in emerging nations. Vodafone gained 0.88 per cent to 160.5 pence in early afternoon deals.

In Frankfurt, SAP surged 5.43 per cent to 39.82 euros after the world's leading maker of business software, said it was maintaining its full-year earnings forecasts after turning in a better-than-expected performance in the second quarter.

SAP said in a statement that bottom-line net profit grew by 8.2 per cent to 449 million euros (620 million dollars) in the period from April to June.

Earlier in Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index of leading shares gained 0.56 per cent to close at 18,116.57 points.

In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38 percent to close at 13,918.22 points, a day after smashing the 14,000 barrier for the first time.

The other main Wall Street indices also sustained losses as the tech-rich Nasdaq lost 0.47 per cent to 2,699.49 points, while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 fell 0.21 per cent to close at 1,546.17.—AFP