European stocks on Wednesday were bouncing back from the previous day's heavy losses after an overnight recovery on Wall Street cheered Asian bourses and revived Japanese high-tech shares.

Frankfurt

Frankfurt jumped nearly 2% in early trade after European bourses had a miserable Tuesday, plunging an average of 3% as a bout of profit-taking followed an autumn rally.

At 0905, the Xetra Dax stood at 4,865.78, up 88.60 from yesterday's Xetra close.

In floor trade, the Dax stood at 4,864.80, up 83.07 from yesterday's close.

Traders said the recovery appears to be largely technical and may not be long lasting, although Wall Street's higher close yesterday has been providing support.

"It's a normal reaction to the falls we had yesterday, but I don't think it will have the legs for a long climb," one said.

Rises so far have been relatively evenly spread across the market and traders said there has been little individual corporate news to move prices.

Paris

French stocks moved higher on the back of New York's impressive late recovery.

At 0918 the Cac 40 was up 10.34 points at 3698.68.

"We should witness a rise at the open and the market could gain as much as 2% on the day on the back of Wall Street's little rally, but I think the market will probably relapse again tomorrow as investors are worried about the two-year global outlook for certain sectors like cars," said a salesman with Credit Lyonnais Securities.

"Also, you have to bear in mind that Wall Street was pulled higher by tech shares last night and that we hardly have a tech sector over here," the salesman added.

"Tech shares represent about 1% of major French indices while in the US it is more like 25%."

The stocks of TF1, M6 parent Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux and Canal Plus are expected to come under pressure after the government said it was shelving for now its draft law on broadcast TV stations.

The law was supposed to slash the advertising budgets of France 2 and France 3, the two state-owned broadcast TV stations.

TF1, M6 and Canal Plus were expected to see a windfall of advertising revenue as a result of the law.

At the moment, France 2 and France 3 behave as privately owned stations by showing nearly as many commercials as the other stations.