Frankfurt  - European shares slipped in early trading Thursday despite the fact that, over the last 24 hours, Asian stock markets turned in a solid performance and Wall Street surged to its highest level in a year.

Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 index edged up just 0.3 per cent to 2437 points as trading gained ground in Europe Thursday.

However, the mood was downbeat among national equity markets with Europe's premiere stock exchange in London sliding 0.41 per cent to 5234.48 points despite the optimism that the world economy is recovering from its biggest downturn in a generation.

While Wall Street raced past the psychological barrier of 10,000 Wednesday, Frankfurt's DAX index dropped 0.2 per cent and shares in Paris dipped by 0.11 per cent Thursday.

That said however, European shares have grown strongly since March when a sense of relief emerged among investors that the global economy might have managed to avoid the dire forecasts made only a matter of months previously that the world could be facing another Great Depression.

Indeed, shares in Frankfurt hit a high for the year on Wednesday.

Hopes that the global economy has now managed to put the recession behind it came as the third-quarter corporate reporting seasons gets underway around the world with several key companies posting better- than-forecast earnings on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the meantime, optimism about the demand for energy helped to push the oil price up by 0.5 per cent to 75.54 dollars a barrel.

Expectations that economic growth in the 16-member eurozone should gain ground in the run-up to the end of the year have also helped power the euro towards the key 1.50 dollars mark Thursday.# (dpa)