LONDON (AP) — Weak US consumer confidence figures hit stocks hard yesterday after they had rallied earlier on comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the central bank stands ready to loosen monetary policy again to shore up the US economy.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 46.77 points, or 0.8 percent, at 5,680.44 while France's CAC-40 fell 11.82 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,807.35. Germany's DAX bucked the trend and was 8.1 points, or 0.1 percent, higher at 6,463.37.

A survey from the University of Michigan reignited fears about the pace of the US economic recovery. Its main index unexpectedly fell to a three-month low of 67.9 in October from 68.2 in October — the consensus in the markets was that sentiment rose modestly to 69.

Stocks have been buoyant over the last few weeks as investors have priced in the growing likelihood that the Fed would join the Bank of Japan in easing monetary policy further.

Though the prospect of more dollars in the financial system has been a boon to stocks, the dollar has tanked.

The turnaround in stock markets helped the dollar recover earlier losses in the wake of Bernanke's comments — the dollar has recently moved in an opposite direction to stocks, largely because of its widely-perceived status as a safe haven currency.

By mid afternoon London time, the euro was 0.4 percent lower on the day at $1.4018, while the dollar was down 0.1 percent at 81.36 yen, having fallen below 81 yen in the immediate aftermath of Bernanke's comments.

Earlier, Asian stocks had been helped by expectations that Beijing plans on boosting domestic spending, with the Shanghai index jumping over 3 percent to 2,971.16.

However, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average ended 83.26 points, or 0.9 percent, lower to 9,500.29 amid ongoing concerns about the export-sapping appreciation of the yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.4 percent to 23,757.63 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed down 0.2 percent at 4,689.00.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 46 cents at $82.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.