Stock market today: World stocks mostly higher as S&P 500 inches near 5,000 | Associated Press

BANGKOK (`) — Stocks rose Thursday mostly in Europe and Asia after the S&P 500 neared the 5,000 mark for the first time.

Germany's DAX rose 0.2% to 16,959.12 and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.6% to 7,658.98. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,648.23.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell less than 0.1%.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong's benchmark fell while Shanghai rose after China replaced its top securities regulator late on Wednesday.

Beijing has struggled to shore up some of the world's weakest markets this year. Late Wednesday, China's top securities regulator was replaced by a former chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange as part of those efforts.

Wu Qing, also a former banker and former vice mayor of Shanghai, has been dubbed a “broker butcher” for his crackdown on market abuses such as insider trading, analysts say.

The announcement that Yi Huiman would be fired from his post as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission was made without any explanation. But the ruling Communist Party may have chosen him to show its determination to protect smaller investors who have come under pressure in recent sell-offs.

Market watchers have cited the lack of transparency around how markets are managed as a factor undermining investor confidence.

On Thursday, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.3% to 2,865.90 and the Shenzhen Components Index in China's smaller main market also rose 1.3%. Markets in mainland China will remain closed from Friday until next week for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 15,878.07 on strong selling by technology companies, despite strong gains for property developers.

Shares of market heavyweight and e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 6.1% after the company announced a major share buyback and said it was abandoning plans to list two of its group companies.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 2.1% to 36,863.28 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4% to 2,620.32.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 7,639.20.

Bangkok's SET fell 0.8% and India's Sensex lost 1%.

On Wednesday, Wall Street was on the verge of another record milestone as Ford Motor, Chipotle Mexican Grill and other major stocks rose following their latest earnings reports.

The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, coming within a fraction of a point of the 5,000 point mark. The Dow gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.

In further trading on Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil prices rose 4 cents to $73.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 16 cents to $79.37 a barrel.

The dollar rose to 148.79 Japanese yen from 148.18 yen. The euro climbed from $1.0774 to $1.0782.

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