LONDON: Stocks markets rose modestly Wednesday as investors hoped European Union officials would come up with a more definitive fix for the region's debt crisis and Britain's finance minister pledged support for Ireland as it struggles to fix its troubled banks. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 10.66 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5692.56 while Germany's DAX was up 36.83 or 0.5 percent to 6700.07. The CAC-40 in France rose 29.88, or 0.8 percent, to 3792.35. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.52 points, or 0.02 percent, to 11,025.02 in midday trading while the broader Standard and amp; Poor's 500 futures was up 3.61 points, or 0.3 percent, at 1,182.95. Officials from the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are heading for Dublin Thursday to survey the situation with Ireland's troubled banks, which are at the center of the country's financial crisis. Irish and European Union officials had vowed Tuesday to stabilize the banks to restore confidence in the wider 16-nation eurozone, but fell short of agreeing on a bailout. Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne also offered help. As he arrived for a meeting of finance ministers from the 27-member European Union, Osborne said his country “stands ready to support Ireland” in any way to stabilize its ailing banking system. Britain is not a part of the eurozone. “While the talks in Ireland are likely to provide some breathing space, the underlying uncertainty remains a negative factor for the euro,” BNP Paribas said. Concerns that Ireland will be unable to pay the cost of rescuing its banks – which ran into trouble when the country's real estate boom collapsed – has worsened Europe's government debt crisis. Markets have pushed up borrowing costs for other vulnerable nations such as Portugal and Spain and threatened to destabilize the common euro currency. US stocks traded in a narrow range as investors seemed to shrug off the release of a monthly report showing that US inflation crept up 0.2 percent, less than expected, and another that said housing starts fell sharply. Asian stocks mostly fell on expectations China will raise interest rates again to tame inflation. China's Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.9 percent to 2,838.86 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dived 2 percent to 23,214.46. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average bucked the trend, gaining 0.2 percent to 9,811.66 as the dollar rose against the yen, boosting exporters. Australia's ASX/S and amp;P 200 dropped 1.6 percent to 4,624.30 and South Korea's Kospi fell l 0.1 percent to 1,897.11. Elsewhere, markets in Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand fell. Singapore, India, Indonesia and Malaysia were closed for holidays. In currencies, the yen rose 0.1 percent to 83.21. The euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.3535. Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 72 cents at $81.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
