Stocks Soar Worldwide on Bank Bailout, Curb on Short Sales

Stocks Soar Worldwide on Bank Bailout, Curb on Short Sales Stocks surged, sending benchmark indexes in the U.K. and China to their biggest gains on record, after the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve announced plans to halt the credit-market seizure and British and American regulators cracked down on short sellers. UBS AG, the European bank hardest hit by the subprime crisis, climbed 32 percent. Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia's largest investment bank, soared 38 percent after U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke proposed removing troubled assets from the balance sheets of financial companies. Barclays Plc advanced 31 percent as the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority banned speculators from betting against financial shares until Jan. 16. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose the most since data for the index began in 1987, adding 7.3 percent to 275.53 at 1:15 p.m. in London, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index posted a record advance of 8.3 percent. Russia's RTS Index jumped 20 percent after a two-day suspension and President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge of $20 billion to prop up the market. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 4.1 percent, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rebounded 4.8 percent from a three-year low. China's CSI 300 Index increased 9.3 percent, the most since the measure was created in 2005. ``At the start of the week, equity investors weren't just facing a loss but an absolute loss,'' said Gary Dugan, London- based chief investment officer for Europe at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, which oversees $2 trillion. ``Now what they are saying is every financial institution is virtually underwritten by this proposal to drop those assets into a life boat.''