LONDON (AP) - World stock markets mostly rose yesterday as traders put aside uncertainty about the size of the Federal Reserve's economy-boosting bond purchase plan to sort through a raft of earnings reports.

Major companies such as Shell, Daimler, and Bayer offered upbeat results in Europe, though AstraZeneca and Banco Santander disappointed.

Asia's Hyundai said its profits rose while in the US, shares in ExxonMobil Corp., Eastman Kodak Co. and Motorola Inc. also gained after their earnings releases.

Britain's FTSE 100 index was up one percent at 5,699.84 and Germany's DAX was up 0.9 percent at 6,626.35. France's CAC-40 was 1.1 percent higher at 3,857.79.

The Fed will meet next week and details of any stimulus are expected to be announced when the meeting wraps up on November 3.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index closed down 0.2 percent to 9,366.03 and barely reacted to the Bank of Japan's widely expected decision to leave its key interest rate unchanged at zero to 0.1 percent.

The central bank also cut its economic growth forecasts and gave more details of a $61 billion asset purchase programme to help revive the Japanese economy, which is being battered by a strong yen and persistent deflation.

In Tokyo, Nintendo Co. - the maker Pokemon and Super Mario video games and the Wii home console - reported a loss of 2.01 billion yen ($24.7 million) for the April-September period as the export-sapping rise in the yen battered sales.

South Korea's Kospi also fell, by 0.1 percent to 1,907.87, while Chinese indexes were mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2 percent to 2,992.58 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2 percent to 23,210.86.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.8 percent to 4,684.9. Shares of ANZ Banking Group Ltd. surged 2.9 percent after posting a better-than-expected 53 percent rise in annual profit to 4.5 billion Australian dollars ($4.4 billion).

Markets in Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand and Taiwan were also up.

In currencies, the dollar slipped to 81.08 yen from 81.64 yen and the euro rose to $1.3893 from $1.3786.

Benchmark oil for December delivery was up 53 cents at $82.47 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 61 cents to settle at $81.94 on Wednesday.