LONDON, July 27: European stock markets clawed back some ground on Friday, as investors paused following recent sharp losses across global equities linked to fresh economic woes in the United States, dealers said.

Analysts are concerned that the country's housing market could spark a credit crunch” and spread to the wider global economy, dealers said.

Traders are well and truly spooked over the US credit issues, whilst mixed earnings data is adding to the general level of concern,” said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland.

In late morning trade, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose by 0.94 per cent to 6,310.00 points.

The prestigious British index had plunged by 3.15 per cent on Thursday -- which was the heaviest daily loss since March 2003.

In Frankfurt on Friday, the DAX 30 added 0.14 per cent to 7,519.59 points and the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.27 per cent to 5,690.29 in late morning trade.

Both indices had slumped by more than 2.0 percent on Thursday.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares won 0.68 per cent to 4,281.92 points on Friday.

Wall Street shares had plunged on Thursday in one of the worst selloffs this year, as investors were gripped by housing market fears.

That, in turn, could impact on private equity groups because their takeover bids are often financed by large amounts of bank debt.

Britain's Cadbury Schweppes said Friday that it has been forced to extend the timetable for the sale of Americas Beverages due to the recent “extreme volatility” in debt markets.

Analysts believe that Cadbury may have to sell Americas Beverages for 7.0 billion pounds (10.42 billion euros, 14.25 billion dollars), rather than the 8.0 billion which investors had anticipated.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 1.84 per cent to 2,599.34 and the broad-market Standard Poor's 500 index slid 2.33 per cent to 1,482.66 points.—AFP