Global stocks mostly rose Wednesday, bolstered by solid U.S. earnings and home sales as tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine eased, AP reported. Europe markets opened with moderate gains. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.2 percent to 6,806.46 and Germany's DAX added 0.4 percent to 9,771.38. France's CAC 40 also advanced 0.4 percent to 4,386.53. Futures augured a tentative advance on Wall Street. S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures each inched up 0.1 percent. After U.S. markets closed on Tuesday, two tech giants boosted investor sentiment with their better-than-expected earnings reports. Apple Inc. reported a 12 percent increase in its quarterly profit, exceeding analysts' estimate. The company said its iPhone shipments rose 13 percent over a year earlier, showing consumers still snapped up its devices even as the next version will likely to come out this fall. Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished 0.8 percent higher at 23,971.87 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent to 5,576.70 helped by the brisk output report by mining giant BHP Billiton. Stocks in mainland China and Southeast Asia also closed higher. But Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.1 percent to 15,328.56 and South Korea's Kospi was steady at 2,028.32. Indonesian stocks surged about 1 percent in early trading after the official vote count showed Joko Widodo the clear winner of a bitterly contested presidential election. In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude for September delivery was down 23 cents to $102.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract slipped 47 cents to $102.39 on Tuesday. The euro edged up to $1.3467 from $1.3466. The dollar fell to 101.33 yen from 101.47 yen.
