Europe’s stock markets pushed higher yesterday as investors bet that gloomy German economic data would help persuade the European Central Bank to continue its “accommodative” monetary policy, dealers said.

Frankfurt and Paris both added 0.2 per cent in afternoon trading following the news that German industrial orders fell in the month of August.

New contracts were down 0.6 per cent compared with July, federal statistics authority Destatis said, disappointing analysts’ predictions for a 0.6-percent increase. London stocks rose 0.4 per cent.

The bright performance at the start of the week followed strong gains in Wall Street action on Friday.

Most markets also rose in Asia after a mixed United States jobs report eased worries about a recession in the world’s top economy – and maintained expectations the Federal Reserve will press on with interest rate cuts.

However, there was some nervousness after reports said China had cut back on the number of areas it is willing to discuss at this week’s top-level trade talks with the US, rekindling concerns about the chances of any agreement between the two.

Oil prices meanwhile rebounded sharply from last week’s heavy losses as bargain hunters moved in.