Frankfurt DAX: German shares advanced yesterday, led by car stocks, as the market continued its bull run. Sentiment was underpinned by US shares, while a robust performance by Hong Kong stocks helped soothe worries about Asia. Dealers now expect the market to head for the 6,000 point level.

The Xetra DAX, which measures all-day electronic trade, closed 102.32 points, or 1.77 per cent, higher at 5,886.72 points after hitting a record 5,894.21 earlier.

Car stocks traded strongly with BMW gaining 3.5 per cent, while Daimler added 3.3 per cent.

Paris CAC-40: French shares surged to a record high in big volume on the back of advances on Wall Street and a big rise in Hong Kong.

The CAC index hit 4,211.98 points, up 2 per cent on the day, but the market then gave up some of its gains to bring the indicator to 4,203.81 points at the close, up 1.88 per cent on Wednesday's close.

Worries about Asia also diminished as Saint-Gobain's chairman, Mr Jean-Louis Beffa told the annual meeting that the economic crisis in Asia would not impact on the company's second-half results.

A number of stocks, including Alcatel, Canal Plus, L'Oreal and Danone, played catch-up with the recent stock market rise, dealers said.

Milan Mibtel: The Italian market ended solidly higher, boosted by selective buying in a handful of stocks and gains on Wall Street. Dealers noted that the tone in the market was becoming more confident after the nervousness of recent days.

Compart ended 8.7 per cent higher at 1,650 lire after announcing that it did not rule out the possibility of selling insurance unit Fondiaria and construction firm Calcemento. Fondiaria finished 9.59 per cent firmer at L10,739 and Calcemento gained 3.99 per cent to close at L2,868.

Telecom Italia closed 4.99 per cent up at L13,115 after its Retevision Movil consortium won Spain's third mobile phone licence.