LONDON (AP) - A stronger than anticipated US manufacturing survey helped stocks rally yesterday but the advance was capped by continuing unease about the scale of the Federal Reserve's expected policy easing later this week.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 19.46 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,694.62 while Germany's DAX rose 3.49 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,604.86. The CAC-40 in France ended 7.61 points, or 0.2 percent, at 3,841.11.

In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 54.83 points, or 0.5 percent, at 11,173.32 around midday New York time while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.33 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,188.59.

Stocks in Europe and the US had traded even higher - the Dow at one stage was up around 120 points - after a forecast-busting manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management. ISM's main manufacturing index rose to 56.9 in October, way up on September's 54.4 and expectations for a far more modest advance.

Any reading above 50 indicates expansion and October's reading was the highest in five months.

As well as meetings of the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, investors will have to digest the outcome of today's Congressional elections in the US. The week culminates with the monthly US non-farm payrolls data for October, which often set the stock market tone for a week or two after their release.

By late afternoon London time, the euro was 0.6 percent lower on the day at $1.3885 while the dollar was 0.5 percent ahead at 80.67 yen, having earlier fallen to a fresh 15-year low of 80.25 yen.

Earlier, most Asian markets advanced, with Chinese shares rebounding on the back of the strong manufacturing data - the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.5 percent, or 75.19 points, to 3,054.02 while the Shenzhen Composite Index of China's smaller, second market jumped 2.9 percent to 1,341.84.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2.4 percent to 23,652.94 and South Korea's Kospi rose 1.7 percent to 1,914.74. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8 percent to 4,698.5.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average bucked the trend, falling 0.5 percent to close at 9,154.72 as the yen's continued rise against the dollar sapped confidence in the country's potential to export its way to growth.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up $1.89 at $83.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.