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World shares rally after ECB bond plan

Friday, September 07 12:04:04

World shares gained today and yields on riskier euro zone government debt fell sharply as investors welcomed the bold measures by European Central Bank to tackle the region's three-year-old debt crisis.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to more gains on Wall Street ahead of the release of August nonfarm payroll data, due at 1230 GMT, which will be key to expectations of more monetary easing by the Federal Reserve.

The main driver of the market's rises is still the ECB's new and potentially unlimited bond buying plan, which it is hoped will lower the borrowing costs for heavily indebted nations like Spain and Italy and ease fears over the future of the euro.

The broad FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European companies, which jumped 2.6 percent on Thursday when the ECB announced the plan, added a further 0.6 percent to 1,111.64 points on Friday.

The euro touched a two-month high against the dollar and the safe-haven yen, while the greenback eased against a basket of major currencies to a four-month low of 80.87. (C ) Reuters