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World stock markets rose Tuesday, perked by hopes that Europe and China will take steps to boost flagging economic growth.
Leaders of the 27 European Union countries will hold an informal meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, a summit that is expected to focus on ways to kick start the region's faltering economy.
Hopes that China will announce new measures to boost growth also helped push shares higher. Investors were encouraged by weekend statements from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who promised to spur the world's second-largest economy, a shift from previous rhetoric about curbing inflation.
Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1 percent to 5,355.88 and Germany's DAX rose 1 percent to 6,394.98. France's CAC-40 added 0.7 percent to 3,049.69.
Wall Street was headed for a slightly lower open, with Dow Jones industrial futures marginally down at 12,482. S&P 500 futures shed less than 0.1 percent to 1,315.
Asian markets posted gains. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1.1 percent to close 8,729.29 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.6 percent to 19,039.15. South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.6 percent to 1,828.69.
Renewed efforts to prevent nearly bankrupt Greece from sliding into default and exiting the euro currency union have also provided a slight relief to traders.
A weekend summit in Washington of leaders of the world's major advanced economies provided little in the way of tangible results. But the G-8 countries issued a statement affirming their desire for Greece to remain in the euro, raising hopes of decisive action to prevent an exit.
"There was nothing to really initiate a bounce, but there were no new negatives out of that either," said Benjamin Collett, head of Japanese equities at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong.
"When the market has been in fail mode for however many straight sessions, anything that isn't bad news is good news," he said.
Greece faces a major test in June 17 elections for a government to replace the one that collapsed amid political and social turmoil stemming from the country's debt crisis.
If a government is elected that fails to follow through with an austerity plan agreed to by prior Greek leadership, the country could lose a promised multibillion euro bailout from international lenders.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 1.2 percent higher at 4,121. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China, New Zealand and Indonesia also rose.
Chinese railway shares got a boost from a government pledge that it will allow private investment in railway projects. Hong Kong-listed China Railway Construction Corp. soared 6.4 percent and China Railway Group rose 5.3 percent.
Japanese auto maker Nissan Motor Co. jumped 4.4 percent, a day after announcing plans to sell 480,000 vehicles annually in Russia by 2016, roughly triple the number sold in the past business year to March, news reports said. Japan's heavy equipment makers Komatsu shot up 5.3 percent.
Chinese property shares also rose. Hong Kong-listed Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. surged 8.4 percent, and China Resources Land rose 4.3 percent. In Shanghai, Poly Real Estate Group Co. rose 5.4 percent.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 8 cents to $92.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.09 to settle at $92.57 in New York on Monday.
In currencies, the euro slipped to $1.2775 from $1.2793 late Monday in New York. The euro hit a four-month low against the dollar on Thursday. The dollar was up at 79.60 yen from 79.36 yen.
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