European stock close

European stocks advanced, with the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index reaching its highest close in six years, after the World Bank raised its global growth forecast.

The Stoxx 600 climbed 1 percent to 334.48 at 4:38 p.m. in London, the highest since January 2008. The index rallied 1.9 percent in the past four days.

The World Bank increased its global growth forecasts, predicting the economy will expand 3.2 percent this year. That compares with a June projection of 3 percent and is up from 2.4 percent in 2013. The Washington-based lender raised the estimate for the richest nations to 2.2 percent from 2 percent. Part of the increase reflects improvement in the 18-nation euro area, and the U.S. growing twice as fast as Japan.

A U.S. report showed that manufacturing in New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut grew at a faster pace than projected this month. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index rose to 12.51 in January, up from a revised 2.22 last month. That beat the median economist forecast that called for an increase to 3.5.

Separately, the Fed will release its Beige Book business survey, which contains anecdotal reports on the economy from its 12 districts. The central bank, which next gathers Jan. 28-29, decided last month to begin trimming monthly bond purchases, citing improvement in the labor market.

National benchmark indexes advanced in all 18 western-European markets today except Iceland.

FTSE 100 6,819.86 +53.00 +0.78% CAC 40 4,332.07 +57.87 +1.35% DAX 9,733.81 +193.30 +2.03%

Burberry jumped 4.4 percent to 1,534 pence. Retail revenue advanced 14 percent to 528 million pounds ($866 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with the 518 million pounds analysts had projected.

H&M climbed 2.7 percent to 291.80 kronor. Europe’s second-biggest clothing retailer posted a 10 percent increase in total sales in December, topping the 9.1 percent gain anticipated in a survey of analysts by SME Direkt.

Peugeot SA gained 3.7 percent to 11.37 euros and Daimler AG rose 2.9 percent to 65.50 euros, as a gauge of European carmakers posted the best performance of 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Chr. Hansen, the world’s biggest maker of dairy enzymes, dropped 4.8 percent to 200.60 kroner. Net income in the first quarter fell to 29.2 million euros, compared with the average analyst estimate for 33.7 million euros.

Hargreaves Lansdown Plc slipped 4.1 percent to 1,446 pence for its biggest drop since September. The U.K.’s biggest retail broker reduced its fees for client investments, saying it negotiated with fund managers to cut their annual management charges for its top 150 funds to about 0.65 percent compared with an industry standard of 0.76 percent.