Apple, Facebook results buoy world shares

LONDON, Apr 24 (Reuters): Global stocks rose on Thursday lifted by upbeat earnings from tech heavyweights Apple and Facebook which helped shake off some of the concerns about overheating that have dented the sector in recent weeks.

Wall Street and particularly the Nasdaq were expected to start brightly when trading restarts on what will be another full day of company earnings made even busier by a liberal helping of unemployment and durable goods data.

European bourses were also performing strongly, with more M&A activity and reassuring economic data helping to lift the FTSE 100 0.7 per cent to its highest in six weeks and the DAX and the CAC 40 in Frankfurt and Paris 0.7 and 1 per cent.

The gains were boosted by the region's tech stocks and came after iPhone and computer maker Apple reported record first quarter sales after hours on Wednesday and laid out plans for a $30 billion share buy back and seven-for-one stock split.

Its shares jumped almost 8 per cent to $566.50, the highest since December, adding roughly $35 billion to its market worth. Facebook shares jumped 3.7 per cent as the social networking company topped Wall Street's expectations.

"The tech news from Apple and Facebook has given a lot of energy to markets," said Chris Beauchamp, a market strategist at IG Index. "(European) company news has been generally better today so I think there is lot more reason to be positive... and (ECB President) Mario Draghi hasn't said anything to spook investors on the euro either."

Draghi reiterated that the ECB was prepared to embark on what he called a "broad-based asset purchase programme" if low inflation become entrenched. There was also more discussion about the problem of the euro's strength.

The currency dipped after the comments but the move quickly ran out of steam and it was back to be little changed on the day at $1.3819 as US trading gathered momentum.

French and German sentiment surveys both came out with more-or-less steady readings on Thursday bolstering signs of economic recovery.