European stock markets rose further on Thursday, shaking off falls across Asian indices after recent sharp gains.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index overcame a lacklustre start to climb 0.66 percent to 5,311.41 points in late morning trade.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.40 percent to 5,670.83 points and in Paris the CAC 40 added 0.47 percent to 3,743.09.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares advanced by 0.43 percent in value to reach 2,774.03 points.
Earlier on Thursday, Asian markets ignored a positive cue from Wall Street to trade mostly lower, as investors took profits from the previous day's gains amid lingering caution over sovereign debt in Europe.
"The markets in general are lacking focus, with attention flicking daily between sovereign debt concerns on the negative side and improved corporate and economic news on the other," said Spreadex trader Richard Griffiths.
"The markets have reacted positively to the diminished prospect of a complete default in Greece. However the volatility in the European equity markets and the euro itself demonstrate how little confidence there is in this being an end to debt problems across the EU," he added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday took an impassioned swipe at banks, saying it would be a "scandal" if it were proved they had helped Greece massage its statistics, which prompted a major crisis.
"It is a scandal if it turns out that the banks who led us to the brink were also complicit in falsifying statistics in Greece."
According to media reports, Wall Street banks found ways of allowing Greece to hide its mounting debt, enabling it to evade European Union censure.
EU finance ministers have called on Athens to prepare drastic action by March 16 to rein in its bulging public deficit -- the highest in the 16-member eurozone. Radical new cost-cutting and tax-raising measures are set to be imposed under newly agreed European Union voting rules.
Aside from Greece, stock market investors were Thursday reacting to earnings data from major European companies. In London, the share price of arms maker BAE Systems rallied 2.98 percent to 359.4 pence as investors cheered a jump in underlying annual earnings rather than focusing on a net loss for the group.
In Frankfurt, Daimler skidded 5.64 percent to 31.17 euros after the German auto giant posted a sharp loss for 2009. French insurance group AXA rose 0.64 percent to 15.66 euros after announcing a fourfold leap in annual profit to 3.6 billion euros.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
