Central banks move to shore up market confidence 13/12/2007 00:00

Frankfurt, December, 12, 2007 - The world's leading central banks said Wednesday they were launching further co-ordinated moves to inject cash into the banking system as part of steps to help funding pressures.

The announcement by the banks including the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank helped to underpin global stock markets with shares in Europe at one stage climbing by one per cent.

By mid afternoon trading, the Eurostoxx 50 index of leading stocks had jumped by 0.8 per cent with the Wall Street's Dow Jones index opening up about 1.6 per cent.

The increase helped to reverse a slide in European stocks earlier in the day, which came in the wake of investor disappointment that the US monetary authorities had decided to deliver only a modest rate cut of 25 basis points.

The central banks' move Wednesday included 24 billion dollars in currency swap lines to the European and Swiss central banks.

The steps also included the Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Swiss National Bank and follow a series of moves by the world's monetary authorities to shore up investor confidence as a result of the credit crunch unleashed by the US subprime mortgage market crisis. dpa