BT Group, DNLM lead 100, 250

Equities markets in Europe were higher Tuesday on good news from the United States, where retail sales were reported up in August, manufacturing in the New York region saw gains and US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the recession is likely over in the US.

The FTSE 100 was 0.46 percent higher to 5,042.13 in London, while the FTSE 250 added 0.45 percent to 9,164.24.

BT Group (LSE: BT.A), part of the telecommunications sector, was up 4.39 percent to lead the 100, while home furnishings retailer Dunelm (LSE: DNLM) added 11.11 percent for the best performance of the day on the 250.

Consumer goods retailer Home Retail Group (LSE: HOME) had the worst day on the 100 as it declined by 3.58 percent and media group ITV (LSE: ITV) dropped 5.65 percent for the worst day on the 250.

Directories publisher Yell Group (LSE: YELL) was up 8.19 percent, while gold and silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) led a mostly higher mining sector.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.08 percent to 991.76 while the Dax added 0.16 percent to 5,628.98, the CAC-40 was 0.58 percent higher to 3,752.21 and the IBEX gained 0.88 percent to 11,593.3.

Banks were mixed as Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) added 4.11 percent to lead the Dax and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) was up 1.94 and Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) gained 1.09 percent, but Credit Agricole (Euronext: ACA) fell 0.08 percent.

Automakers were mixed as well, with Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) down 2.24 percent for the worst performance on the Dax while Daimler (FWB: DAI; NYSE: DAI) fell 0.87 percent and BMW (FWB: BMW) was 0.77 percent lower but truck maker Man (FWB: EDF1) added 1.29 percent and Peugeot (Euronext: UG) gained 3.24 percent.

Over on the CAC-40, utility EDF (Euronext: EEN) turned in the best performance on the index with a gain of 6.72 percent while retailer Carrefour (Euronext: CA) dropped 2.35 for the worst day on the Paris index.

Asia-Pacific region equities markets were mostly higher, but results were mixed on the session.

The Nikkei 225 was up 0.15 percent to 10,217.62 in Tokyo, and the Mothers market of small and mid caps added 0.34 percent to 463.31, but the Topix index was 0.16 percent lower to 932.52.

Exporters saw some gains after the yen weakened slightly versus the US dollar, with printer maker Canon (TYO: 7751) up 2.9 percent, while among auto makers Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203) was up 0.3 percent and Honda Motor (TYO: 7267) added 0.5 percent.

Japan Airlines (TYO: 9205) dropped 3.4 percent on reports that Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH), Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) and American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) are all in separate talks with JAL.

The Tokyo real estate sector was up on a broker upgrade from “underweight” to “mildly overweight” by Deutsche Bank as Tokyu Land (TYO: 8825) led gains in the sector, adding 2.9 percent on the session.

Trade in Tokyo continued lighter than usual.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 added 0.2 percent to 4,540.3 and the Sydney Ordinaries gained 0.24 percent to 4,547.2.

The Shanghai Composite was up 0.23 percent to 3,033.73, the Kospi added 1.13 percent to 1,653.4, the Taiex was 1.23 percent higher to 7,346.26 and the Sensex gained 1.48 percent to 16,454.45.

On the other hand, the Straits Timex Index fell 0.05 percent to 2,638.4 and the Hang Seng dropped 0.31 percent to 20,866.37.

Early afternoon in New York found Wall Street slightly higher as the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.32 percent to 9,657.49 while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.39 percent to 2,099.93 and the S&P 500 had gained 0.13 percent to 1,050.73.

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