A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – US stocks have posted solid gains as a big General Electric asset sale added to the Wall Street deal wave on a strong day for global equity markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 98.92 points (0.55 per cent) to 18,057.65.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 10.88 (0.52 per cent) to 2,102.06 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 21.41 (0.43 per cent) to 4,995.98.
GE led the Dow, bolting 10.8 per cent higher after announcing it would sell $US26.5 billion ($A34.46 billion) in real estate assets as part of a plan to pare off most of its GE Capital unit over the next 24 months.
The GE announcement came on the heels of major merger announcements earlier in the week from Royal Dutch Shell and FedEx.
LONDON – European stock markets shot to record highs as a weaker single currency boosted companies’ exports from the eurozone.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index shot up 1.06 per cent on Friday to close at 7,089.77 points, having risen as high as 7,095.36 during the session.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index jumped 1.71 per cent to 12,374.37 points, moving as high as 12,390.75 points during the day.
Meanwhile the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.60 per cent to 5,240.46 points, a seven-year high.
The euro slid to $1.0606 from $1.0659 late in New York on Thursday.
HONG KONG – Hong Kong stocks continued their surge, rallying for a third straight session as mainland investors flooded into the market, while Tokyo dipped after breaching the 20,000 point mark for the first time in 15 years.
Tokyo’s Nikkei dipped 0.15 per cent after earlier breaking 20,000 – a level not reached since April 2000.
The index finished 30.09 points down at 19,907.63
Hong Kong added 1.22 per cent, or 328.00 points, to 27,272.39.
Shanghai rallied 1.94 per cent, or 76.78 points, to end at 4,034.31, its best close since March 2008.
Sydney added 0.61 per cent, or 36.15 points, to 5,968.37 and Seoul surged 1.40 per cent, or 28.89 points, to 2,087.76.
WELLINGTON – The NZX 50 Index nudged up 0.19 points to 5847.36.
