LONDON: European and Asian stocks rose Thursday and Wall Street was expected to gain at the open after a Federal Reserve report boosted hopes the U.S. economy is recovering steadily.

Germany's DAX rose 0.7 percent to 5,612.60 and Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent to 5,024.32. France's CAC-40 was up 0.5 percent at 3,726.08.

Many Asian indexes were up as much as 2 percent, while on Wall Street Dow industrials futures were up 11 points at 9,549 and Standard & Poor's 500 futures were up 1.5 points at 1,034.

The Fed's Beige Book released late Wednesday suggested the recession is ending in the U.S. and the economy is finally growing again.

Although economists warn that the recovery is fragile as long as unemployment continues to increase, the Fed's survey showed improvements in economic activity and expectations across most of the country.

"The report sounds like a 'from the ground' confirmation that the recovery is on track. As such, it is consistent with investors taking on more risks and supporting most asset classes," said Sebastien Barbe, analyst at Calyon.

He noted it was still too soon to "claim victory, as retail sales remain flat, labor markets are still weak, and the demand for credit is subdued." But said the report "did nothing to contradict the bulls."

Stronger economic data also emerged in the U.K., where the nation's biggest mortgage lender said house prices rose 0.8 percent in August. Several separate reports have shown a gradual recovery in property markets, which experts say is crucial to consumer confidence.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 201.53 points, or 2 percent, to 10,513.67

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 218.52, or 1.1 percent, to 21,069.56, Korea's Kospi was up 2.3 percent at 1,644.68 and India's gained 0.6 percent to 16,280.04. Markets in Australia and Taiwan climbed 1.1 percent.

Among major benchmarks, only mainland China's was lackluster, with the Shanghai's index down 0.7 percent.

Tech shares such as Japan's Elpida Memory, up 3.5 percent in Tokyo, were strong after American chip maker Texas Instruments raised its sales forecasts. Meanwhile, Taiwan's Foxconn International Holdings, a major contractor for Apple Inc., jumped 6.5 percent in Hong Kong after the U.S. tech giant's CEO Steve Jobs made a public appearance for first time since his medical leave to announce new products.

Investors showed little reaction to Asia's economic news for the day.

Japan's core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of corporate capital spending, fell in July after a rise in the previous month, suggesting a patchy recovery in the world's second-largest economy. South Korean and New Zealand central banks, issuing cautious views about their economic prospects, kept their interest rates unchanged as expected.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow rose 0.5 percent. The index has added 2.9 percent in four days. It was the Dow's second-highest close of the year, just below its Aug. 27 finish of nearly 9,581. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.8 percent to 1,033.37.

Oil prices continued to rise, with benchmark crude for October delivery up 44 cents at $71.75 in European trade after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to keep output levels steady.

OPEC claimed current prices were adequate for both producers and consumers and said it would focus on enforcing existing output quotas among its member countries.

The dollar rose to 92.19 yen from 91.95 yen late Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.4532 from $1.4557 after trading above $1.46 on Wednesday, the highest level since late September 2008.

SHANGHAI: China potentially could be a $500 billion to $1 trillion a year market for environmentally sustainable "green technologies," a group of businesses and experts said in a report Thursday that urges governments to ease the way for such initiatives.

The report by the China Greentech Initiative, a group of more than 80 leading technology companies, non-governmental organizations and policy advisers, pinpointed opportunities from 300 potential green technology options for China, spanning energy, water, buildings, transportation and industry.

But government support is key, said Richard Gledhill, global leader of Climate Change & Carbon Market Services in London for PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy that helped head the research.

According to the U.S. International Energy Agency, holding climate change to just a 2 degrees Celsius increase over the next two decades will require $9 trillion in extra spending, he said.

"The private sector has a key role to play in delivering the required investment at the scale required to avoid dangerous climate change. But it will only do this if there is a clear, long-term policy framework to underpin prospects of a reasonable return," Gledhill said.

The project defined greentech as technologies, products and services that benefit users as much or more than conventional alternatives, while limiting the impact on the natural environment and promoting efficient and sustainable use of energy, water and other resources.

While such changes are needed worldwide, China's rapid growth and dizzyingly fast urbanization are contributing to a building boom that has created more than twice the floor space as in the U.S.

About 18 million people migrate from rural areas to the cities each year, so that by about 2050 China will have more than 200 cities with populations of more than 1 million people, the report said.

Such growth will require huge increases in use of energy, water and materials that will force China to adopt new, environmentally friendly technologies, it said.

Both Chinese and foreign companies will find new opportunities, though they still face challenges, particularly in overcoming barriers to transfer of technologies and preventing piracy of intellectual property such as patents.

"We need to find new business models to accelerate investment since so much of the technology is owned by universities rather than businesses," Gledhill told a recent conference in Shanghai on green technology.