European markets shrug off Spain downgrade

LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets rose on Thursday, shrugging off Standard & Poor's slashing Spain's credit rating, gaining added steam from a big drop in US jobs claims.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies ended the day up 0.92 per cent at 5,829.75 points, while in Frankfurt the Dax 30 added 1.06 per cent to 7,281.7 points and in Paris the Cac 40 jumped 1.42 per cent to 3,413.72 points.

Wall Street also clocked gains after the US Labour Department reported that new claims for unemployment insurance benefits plunged unexpectedly last week to a four-year low of 339,000. In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had climbed 0.19 per cent to 13,370.78 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.42 per cent to 1,438.56 points, and the tech-rich Nasdaq added 0.26 per cent to 3,059.82 points.

"Stocks and commodities have caught a tailwind today, boosted by better than expected jobs numbers out of the United States," said CMC Markets analyst Colin Cieszynski.