Global stocks hit new highs

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 touched an intraday record high of 1,623.74

Major stock indexes in Germany and the US hit all-time highs on Tuesday after data bolstered expectations that Germany has returned to growth, and a successful bond sale in Portugal indicated the country is on track to exit its bailout.

The euro firmed against most currencies following the strong data on German industrial orders. Earlier, the Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets with a cut in interest rates to a record low, highlighting the pressure a stubbornly high currency is putting on the resource-exporting economy.

The MSCI index of global shares, which tracks stocks in 45 countries, edged past its June 2008 high, and Germany's DAX index notched a record high, topping the previous high set in 2007.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 touched an intraday record high of 1,623.74.

The success of Portugal's first 10-year bond in more than two years, in addition to putting the country on course to exit its bailout on time, qualifies it for an ECB debt support programme.

Portugal was hoping to raise ^3 billion from the syndicated benchmark sale, for which European books alone closed at ^9 billion, Thomson Reuters news and information service IFR reported, with bidders seeking a return of around 5.6 per cent.

In another sign of economic strength in Europe, Germany, the region's largest economy, reported a rise in industrial orders in March, confounding expectations for a drop.

Seasonally and price-adjusted data showed industrial orders rising by 2.2 per cent in March from the previous month. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected orders to drop by 0.5 per cent in March.

The DAX became the first of the major European indexes to breach the peaks set in 2007, rising as high as 8,173.19 points and following in the footsteps of the US S&P 500 which has been setting record highs since mid-April.

In early afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 34.52 points or 0.23 per cent, to 15,003.41, the S&P 500 gained 3 points or 0.19 per cent, to 1,620.5 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.25 points or 0.13 percent, to 3,388.72.

MSCI's global index edged past its June 2008 high after Japan's stock market, which had been closed on Monday, soared in a delayed reaction to Friday's strong US jobs data. The global index was up 0.5 per cent at 372.79.