LONDON (AFP) -- Europe's main stock markets extended gains on Wednesday, mirroring a recovery on Wall Street after recent heavy losses for global equities.

Nearing the half-way stage, London's FTSE 100 index of leading blue-chip shares rose by 0.59 percent to 6,346.20 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.55 percent to 7,554.42 points and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.92 percent to 5,672.09.
The DJ Euro STOXX 50 index of top eurozone shares increased by 0.89 percent to 4,315.03 points. European markets had rallied on Tuesday.
The euro on Wednesday stood at 1.3768 dollars.
Major U.S. share indices also closed higher Tuesday after the Federal Reserve announced it was leaving its benchmark interest rate at 5.25 percent.
Trading has been volatile in recent days with indices diving on concerns about the weak U.S. housing and mortgage markets before rocketing as investors snapped up stocks at bargain prices.
In London, insurers continued to prop up the FTSE 100, with Standard Life surging 5.83 percent to 345 pence on a broker upgrade, dealers said.
Royal and Sun Alliance gained 3.97 percent to 141.4 pence after reporting better-than-expected results for the first half of 2007.
In Frankfurt, the Germany chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer jumped 3.84 percent to 53.22 euros a day after publishing consensus-beating results.
Franco-Italian semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics meanwhile soared 5.04 percent to 12.91 euros in Paris after announcing a deal to supply the third generation (3G) chipsets to Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia.
WestLB Research analyst Matthias Grossman said the deal removes uncertainty about STMicro's future.
""To my understanding, there was always a fear in the market that STMicro could lose its good relationship with Nokia as regards 3G development as Texas Instruments has a comparable offering,"" he said.
Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.26 percent at 13,504.30 points on Tuesday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended 0.56-percent higher at 2,561.60 points and the broad-market Standard Poor's 500 index gained 0.62 percent to 1,476.71