European stocks gain for fourth straight session

Europe's main stock markets climbed Wednesday continuing their rebound for a fourth consecutive day, and following an upbeat open on Wall Street.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 0.73 percent to 6,372.35 points in early afternoon deals in the capital, with gains for heavyweight mining stocks bolstering sentiment.

In the eurozone, after earlier cautious gains, Frankfurt's DAX 30 stood 1.39 percent up compared with Tuesday's close to 10,040.90 points and the Paris CAC 40 gained 1.17 percent to 4,715.77.

Wall Street moved higher as stronger oil prices lifted petroleum-linked shares.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 16,889.40, up 0.59 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.49 percent to 1,989.72, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.35 percent to 4,765.10.

In foreign exchange, the euro fell to $1.1245 from $1.1271 late on Tuesday in New York.

German shares rose despite the country's industrial output unexpectedly slumping in August, the economy ministry said Wednesday, as Europe's top export power feels the pinch of slowing growth in China and other emerging markets.

On the corporate front, the world's biggest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev raised Wednesday its offer for British rival SABMiller to 68 billion pounds (92 billion euros, $103 billion), or 42.15 pounts per share, only to be told it was still too low to achieve one of the largest ever corporate takeovers.

The deal sought by Belgian-Brazilian AB InBev would create a global "megabrewer" that would bring together internationally famous brands such as the iconic US beer Budweiser and Stella Artois with Grolsch and Foster's.

But the board of Britain's SABMiller, which has already rejected two previous bids from its rival "unanimously rejected" the third offer as "substantially" too low.

A combined new group would be worth around 220 billion euros ($250 billion).

In afternoon deals, SABMiller shares in London were up 0.87 percent at 3,653.50 pence, while AB InBev gained 1.4 percent to 99.42 euros in Brussels after earlier pushing through the 100 euro barrier.

Brenda Kelly, head analyst at traders London Capital Group.said "by the muted response in the (SABMiller) share price this morning (investors) are cautious and probably more than a little dubious that this deal will go ahead."

- 'Challenging turnaround' -

Also Wednesday, Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco, said it had fallen into a net loss during its first half, partly on costs linked to an accounting scandal.

Losses after tax stood at 365 million pounds in the six months to the end of August, compared with a net profit of 6.0 million pounds during the corresponding period a year earlier, Tesco said in an earnings statement.

"Tesco results ... highlighted the problems that the sector as well as the group have had over the past two years," said Graham Spooner, analyst at online trading firm The Share Centre.

"However, the retailer did beat analyst consensus expectations... in what is proving to be a challenging turnaround."

In afternoon deals, Tesco shares were up 1.77 percent at 195.55 pence, reversing early losses.

In Asia, stock markets were also higher, with Hong Kong closing 3.13 percent up and Singapore adding 2.22 percent in the afternoon.

Sydney closed 0.59 percent stronger and Seoul advanced 0.76 percent by the close boosted by Samsung shares soaring 8.7 percent after it announced it expected to see an 80 percent jump in third-quarter operating profit.

Japanese stocks extended gains to a sixth session Wednesday finishing up 0.75 percent, after the Bank of Japan decided to hold fire on fresh stimulus measures despite sluggish growth and stagnant prices.