Investors Throw Caution to the Wind and Pile Into Regional Stocks

European stocks tossed caution to the side Wednesday and extended gains across the board as sentiment from a record-setting session on Wall Street offset investor wariness ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision later today.

The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 benchmark gained around 0.55% in the opening hour of trading and was quoted at 390.84 points at 09:00 London time. France's CAC-40 led gains for regional indices, rising 0.9% on the back of solid gains for industrial and consumer stocks while Germany's DAX performance index added 0.5% on the strength of big gains for utility stocks such as RWE AG (RWEOY) and E.On AG (EONGY) . Britain's FTSE 100, however, edged only a few points higher to 7,505 points as gains were tempered by a stronger pound sterling.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.