Europe and Asia stocks rebound

By Adam Haigh  |   2008-11-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

STOCKS advanced in Europe and Asia yesterday, sending the MSCI World Index to its sixth straight gain, after results from Clariant AG and Marks & Spencer Group Plc eased concern about profit growth, while money-market interest rates declined. United States index futures rose.

Clariant and Marks & Spencer rallied more than 9 percent after the companies reported earnings that topped analysts' estimates. Societe Generale SA gained 8 percent. Mizuho Financial Group Inc climbed 7.1 percent as lending costs tumbled the most in almost a decade in Japan, reported Bloomberg News.

The MSCI World added 1.5 percent to 975.89 at 1:40pm in London. The gauge for 23 developed countries increased six straight days for the first time since July, rallying 17 percent from a five-year low on Ocober 27. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose for a sixth day, jumping 2.5 percent, the longest stretch of gains since August 2007, when the credit crisis got under way.

Good earnings

"We have had some earnings at the top end of expectations which has helped sentiment," said Richard Hunter, head of British equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, a unit of Hargreaves Lansdown Plc. "Government intervention across the world is now starting to help and money-market rates are going in the right direction."

Shares in Asia also rose, led by financial companies, as Australia's central bank cut interest rates more than economists expected. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 6.3 percent as trading resumed following Monday's holiday. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Westpac Banking Corp gained.

Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 2.2 percent as voters in the US go to the polls to elect a new president. The winner between Democrat Barack Obama, who leads in national polls, and Republican John McCain must contend with an economy crippled by declining corporate profits and the highest unemployment in five years.