17 Sep 2011

European shares rise higher

10:33 am on 17 September 2011

European shares have risen further, following gains in Asia, as markets continue to react to Thursday's news of emergency measures by central banks.

The DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.1%, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.7% and the CAC-40 in Paris added 0.6% by mid-afternoon.

Earlier, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan rose by 2.3% and the Kospi index in South Korea gained 3.7%.

Banks were the top gainers around Europe, with Barclays up 5.4%, RBS up 5.1%, Lloyds up 4.5%, Deutsche Bank up 5.2%, Commerzbank up 4.3% and Societe Generale up 3.5%.

The BBC reports the central banks are trying to encourage lenders, especially in Europe, to keep lending to each other.

They are to provide commercial banks with three additional tranches of loans to help ease funding pressures.

The five banks involved are the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

The new loans are being issued in dollars, because European banks can already access additional euro funds from the European Central Bank.