Summary In London gold rose to $1,254.99 an ounce on Friday compared with $1,252.50 the day before.
LONDON (AFP) - Europe s main stock markets rose on Friday, as traders looked ahead to key US jobs data after the shake-up to eurozone interest rates.
London s FTSE 100 index of top companies climbed 0.27 percent to stand at 6,831.71 points in late morning deals.
Frankfurt s DAX 30 gained 0.14 percent to 9,961.82 points and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.09 percent ahead to 4,552.74 by midday.
"After the excitement of the ECB comes the excitement of non-farm payrolls," said David Madden, market analyst at IG traders.
Investors were turning their attention to the release later on Friday of US jobs data which will give an updated view of the state of the world s number one economy.
"The wide spread of expectations surrounding today s job numbers indicate how divided opinion is on the US economy, and by extension on the stock market itself," said Madden.
"Recent revisions to non-farm numbers have tended to the upside, but the 288,000 figure of April looks vulnerable to a downward shift... As the end of the week looms it seems entirely possible that markets will end fairly quietly, as traders close out positions following a two-day burst of volatility."
Wall Street indices closed at record-highs on Thursday and Asian stock markets were mixed Friday after the European Central Bank unveiled a batch of measures to kick-start the stuttering eurozone economy.
European stock markets had also ended mixed on Thursday, winning only a brief boost after the ECB cut its key interest rates to new all-time lows as part of efforts to prevent eurozone deflation.
The central bank s announcements also only had only a brief impact of the euro, the strength of which has been contributing to deflationary pressures.
In a move hailed as "unprecedented" by analysts, the ECB lowered the rate at which it pays commercial banks for depositing their unused cash into negative territory for the time, cutting it from zero percent to minus 0.10 percent.
This means that banks will be charged for parking funds at the ECB in the hope they might lend it on to businesses and consumers instead.
In foreign exchange trading, the European single currency fell to $1.3637 from $1.3662 late in New York on Thursday.
The euro dropped to 81.12 British pence from 81.23 pence.
The British pound dipped to $1.6809 from $1.6818 on Thursday.
On the London Bullion Market, gold rose to $1,254.99 an ounce on Friday compared with $1,252.50 the day before.
