World stock markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a Federal Reserve policy statement that could shed new light on when the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates, AP reported. France's CAC 40 gained 0.1 percent to 4843.68 and Germany's DAX added 0.2 percent to 11,060.07. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent to 6,715.94. Wall Street looked set for gains, with futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 both up 0.3 percent. On Tuesday, the Dow and S&P both added 0.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index started out declining for a third day but rebounded to end up 1.6 percent at 4,967.90. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was off 0.2 percent at 20,219.27. Seoul's Kospi added 0.3 percent to 2,034.86. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 rose 1.1 percent to 5,595.40 and India's Sensex added 0.7 percent to 26,884.80. Singapore, Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta also rose. New Zealand declined. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 13 cents to $60.10 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 45 cents on Tuesday to close at $59.97. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 55 cents to $64.26 in London after losing 25 cents on Tuesday to $63.70. The dollar strengthened to 123.73 yen from 123.42 yen on Tuesday. The euro edged up to $1.1270 from $1.1244.
