Bourses climb but short of three-year high

US stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday after spending most of the day in the red as crude oil futures rose above $56 a barrel following a larger-than-expected fall in US fuel inventories. By the closing bell, the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all put on 0.2 per cent to 1,206.58, 10,566.37, and 2,074.92 respectively.

Europe's bourses climbed yesterday but remained shy of the three-year high of the previous session after Wall Street was buoyed by reassuring comments from the US Federal Reserve in its Beige Book that inflation was well contained. This eased worries over aggressive interest rate increases later in the year. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.4 per cent to 1,137.15, just below its recent three-year high of 1,139.67 hit on Wednesday. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt rose 0.6 per cent to 4,573.89, the CAC-40 in Paris added 0.5 per cent to 4,204.53.

Helped by a late rally overnight on Wall Street, London's equities market moved higher by the end of morning trade yesterday. The FTSE 100 rose 0.4 per cent to 5,037.6 while the mid-cap FTSE 250 aded 0.6 per cent to 7,299.3 by mid morning..

Japanese stocks edged up yesterday, as profit taking on better than expected economic figures was counterbalanced by rises in banking and retail shares. The Nikkei 225 rose by a small margin, ending the day up 0.50 point - less than 0.1 per cent - at 11,416.38.