European stocks rallied after better-than-expected earnings from Ford Motor, American Express and Italy’s Eni SpA.Banking stocks rose BNP Paribas and Barclays gained more than 4 percent.Oil stocks BP, Shell and Total gained between 4.8 to 5.4 percent as crude rose $1.67 a barrel to $51.29.Italy's Eni rose 5 ercent after better-than-expected earnings.Volvo was down 1.8 percent after it posted more than expected first-quarter loss.

FTSE 100 index ended higher 3.43 percent up 137.76 points to 4155.99,Germany's DAX closed up 3 percent up 136.11 points to 4674.32,France's CAC 40 gained 3.13 percent up 94.23 points to 3102.85.

On Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average rose by 119.23 points, up 1.50 percent, to 8,076.29. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 14.31 points, up 1.68 percent, to 866.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 42.08 points, up 2.55 percent, to 1,694.29.

Crude oil rose $1.93, or 3.9%, to settle at $US51.55 a barrel in New York Mercantile.Gold futures jumped to a three-week high in New York.Prices for June delivery gained $7.50, or 0.8%, to $US914.10.Copper rose in New York after a four-day decline.

Saturday,25 April 2009