Record Nasdaq high spurs European market growth

European stock markets opened higher on Friday morning, driven by strong trading in Asia and the Nasdaq index reaching a record high.

Climbing above the peak it achieved at the height of the dot.com boom, the US tech index closed at 5,056.06, just short of the 5,132.52 mark reached earlier in the day.

Following suit, the FTSE 100 rose by 0.29 per cent early on Friday, while the FTSE EuroFirst 300 gained 0.15 per cent. In France, the CAC 40 added 0.36 per cent, and Germany's Dax saw a more modest increase of 0.18 per cent.

Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at Capital Spreads, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "Although yesterday was a mixed bag for Europe, what with weak economic data and lingering jitters over Greece, the rising tide of new all-time highs in the Nasdaq looks like it will lift all boats this morning."

In the Asia-Pacific region, the MSCI's broadest share index outside of Japan enjoyed an upturn of 0.4 per cent as it reached its highest level since 2008. Across the week as a whole, it remained on track to record gains of about 0.6 per cent.

However, this strong performance was not replicated across Asia. In China, stocks were hit by an announcement from the country's securities regulator on plans to accelerate approval of initial public offerings (IPOs), in a move experts said is designed to ease activity in the market.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved a batch of 25 IPOs and revealed it would be publishing two lists of approved IPOs every month - doubling the current number.

Xiao Shijun, analyst at Guodu Securities in Beijing, said the measure demonstrates that "regulators are concerned with the pace of the current market rally".

He added: "It will bring some short-term pressure to the market."