LONDON: World shares rose over half a per cent to one-week highs on Friday on hopes that European policymakers might at last come up with measures to combat a deepening debt crisis but the euro gave up some of the gains seen in the previous session. US stock futures pointed to a weak open on Wall Street. Risk appetite received a boost on Thursday following coordinated action by five major central banks to add liquidity to a European banking system struggling with its dollar funding needs. By 0945 GMT, MSCI's benchmark global equities index was up 0.65 per cent adding to gains of 1.2 per cent on Thursday while Europe's FTSE Eurofirst index of top shares rose for the fourth straight session, up 1 per cent . Gains were led by banks as Credit Suisse , ING and Societe Generale jumped more than 4.2 per cent, though some financial sector stocks such as Deutsche Bank and Unicredit pared early strong gains. "There is a no doubt that the developments reached overnight are positive for markets as it addresses a liquidity issue that had begun to creep into European banks," said Ben Potter, strategist at IG Markets in London. "There was a lack of confidence beginning to build in the European interbank lending markets and these US dollar funding lines will help ease these confidence issues." The central bank action does nothing however towards resolving the euro zone debt issue and the fear of a global recession, issues that are weighing heavily on risk appetite. Despite four days of gains, world stocks are down 3.4 per cent this month and have lost 10 per cent so far in 2011. Focus now is on a meeting later on Friday between US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and European finance ministers, on the possibility of leveraging the euro zone's bailout fund to resolve the debt crisis. The hope is the meeting will yield a more decisive result that will stave off a Greek default but many were pessimistic.

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