the foreign exchanges

LONDON (Dow Jones)--European stocks are expected to open higher Friday, despite a mixed session in Asia. The region's main bourses are more likely to follow their U.S. counterparts, traders said, after Wall Street posted modest gains Thursday. " [in the previous session] so they will be playing catch-up," said Matt Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets. Buckland called London's FTSE 100 index up 34 points, or 0.7%, at 4903.4, Frankfurt's DAX up 38 points, or 0.7%, at 5508.3 and Paris's CAC-40 up 28, or 0.8%, at 3676.5. He also said that, as is common towards the end of the month, there may be some re-positioning and slightly higher activity, although he acknowledged that volumes have been very low this week. Meanwhile, Asian share markets were mixed Friday as weakness in China's stock markets continued to hurt investor sentiment despite mild gains on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.6% while South Korea's Kospi Composite gained 0.5%. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.5%. "As profit-taking kicked in yesterday, positive external cues like U.S. stocks and crude futures can more easily lift the market," said Yukio Takahashi, market analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. Still, gains for the Tokyo stock market were limited by caution before Sunday's Lower House elections in Japan, in an absence of other domestic cues. The Shanghai Composite index was 2.9% lower on concerns that there could be more large-scale fund-raising activity, after Bank of China president Li Lihui said late Thursday that the bank may issue new shares to boost its capital base. Earlier, in the U.S., stocks closed higher, with banks pacing the gains and dominating volumes. Closing higher for the eighth straight session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 0.4% to 9580.6. The Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 0.3% at 1031.0, including a gain of 0.8% for industrials and 1% for financials. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2% to 2027.7. Meanwhile, front-month Nymex crude oil futures rose $1.06 in New York and were up another 15 cents at $72.64 per barrel in electronic trade Friday, helping energy-related stocks. "Oil (inventories) are still at very high levels but improving demand amid continued supply tightness should accelerate the pace of erosion of the inventory overhang, lending support to prices," said Barclays Capital. In the foreign exchanges, the euro and the pound gained modest ground against the dollar and the yen. The euro was quoted at $1.4351 at 0630 GMT, up from $1.4341 in late





Thursday. The dollar was quoted at Y93.81, up from Y93.52. Traders said Japanese importers were buying both the dollar and the euro against the yen, but the market was otherwise fairly quiet. Meanwhile, LME metals were higher and spot gold was quoted at $950.55 per troy ounce, up $1.05 from the New York close. European bond markets opened a tad lower. The September bund futures contract was last seen down 0.14 at 122.56. -By Andrea Tryphonides, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9281; andrea.tryphonides@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=I5gpE8lrGQfJ4vkJC6SOkQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.