Europe’s stock markets ended higher yesterday, with the Dax in Frankfurt topping the 7,500 mark for the first time since early 2008, though London’s FTSE index was closed for Britain’s royal wedding holiday.

The Dax finished the day at 7,514.46 points, a gain of 0.52 per cent over Thursday’s close. Meanwhile in Paris the CAC 40 rose for the seventh straight day, though marginally, up 0.05 per cent to 4,106.92.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares will reopen on Tuesday after a four-day weekend.

Other European bourses were also up, though none spectacularly. Lisbon’s 0.39 per cent rise being the biggest move.

Swiss stocks were up 0.36 per cent, Milan by 0.17 per cent and Amsterdam by 0.13 percent.

Madrid and Brussels were steady, up just 0.10 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.

US stocks also made moderate progress upwards yesterday.

At 1700 GMT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.49 per cent up at 12825.68 points.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite was up a mere 0.02 per cent at 2,873.01 points while the S&P 500 was up 0.23 per cent at 1363.62 points.

Meanwhile Asian shares mostly fell following weak economic data from the United States, showing growth had slowed, while Sydney was hurt by the increasing strength of the Australian dollar.

Hong Kong closed 0.36 per cent lower at 23,720.81

Tokyo, like London, was closed for a public holiday. Sydney ended 1.02 per cent, or 49.8 points, down at 4,823.2, as exporters were hurt by the stronger “Aussie”, which is approaching US$1.10 after credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded its outlook on US debt for the first time.