Credit Agricole Helps European Stocks Rise

PAN PYLAS

LONDON (AP) — European stock markets rose Wednesday after strong earnings from French bank Credit Agricole SA and a surprise increase in British employment levels. The euro meanwhile was pushing back up towards 15-month highs against the dollar.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 66.36 points, or 1.3 percent, at 5,296.91 while Germany's DAX rose 87.25 points, or 1.6 percent, to 5,700.45. The CAC-40 in France was 55.14 points, or 1.5 percent, higher at 3,840.73.

Sentiment was buoyed by better than expected third quarter results from Credit Agricole. Its shares were up nearly 6 percent, making it the top riser on the CAC-40. Other banks rose in its slipstream, including Societe Generale SA.

Meanwhile, British labor market figures showed that employment actually increased in the three months to September, the first rise since May 2008 — an increase in the available workforce, as graduates joined the labor market, also pushed unemployment up, however.

Investors in Britain are also digesting the Bank of England's newly-released quarterly economic projections for clues on how fast the bank sees the economy recovering and whether inflationary pressures are more prevalent.