World stocks power to 4-month peak

By Natsuko Waki

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks powered to a fresh four-month peak on Friday, driven by technology and oil shares, while diverging growth outlooks between the United States and elsewhere weighed on the dollar.

Data from Japan showed the economy unexpectedly picked up pace, growing 0.8 percent in the first quarter as exports weathered a U.S. downturn. This followed Thursday's data which offered forecast-beating growth in the euro zone.

These economies could still follow the United States into a slowdown, but evidence that growth is more than holding up, which helped boost investor risk appetite.

"Europe is not going to be anywhere as badly affected with a continuing slowdown in the real economy as the U.S. is," said Adam Myers, market strategist at Credit Suisse.

"Europe will slow down but its slowdown is not going to have the same impact on financial markets and lending and therefore consumers than it will in the U.S."

The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 1 percent while MSCI's main world equity index rose 0.5 percent to its highest since January.

The MSCI index is a whisker away from a 2008 high set in January and on track to recoup all of the losses made since the end of last year.

Reflecting an increasingly risk-friendly environment, the Volatility Index .VIX, a key gauge of fear which measures projected stock market volatility through the S&P, hit 16.08 on Thursday, its lowest since October, having shot up as high as 37.57 in January.