* Investors reverse previous session's trades
* Global stocks rise, yen slips, oil rebounds
* Japan sees weaker economy
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - World stocks put in modest
gains on Wednesday after recent declines, while oil prices also
rebounded as investors sought fresh opportunities to bet on
risky assets.
The Japanese yen fell after a brief show of strength in the
previous session. The government downgraded its assessment of
the economy for the first time in six months to reflect last
month's devastating earthquake and tsunami and their aftermath.
Brent crude oil rebounded to above $122, halting a two-day
decline, on fears that the Libya conflict could settle into a
bloody stalemate, while a sudden disruption in Kuwaiti oil
exports due to bad weather boosted sentiment.
Overall, Wednesday was mostly a mirror image of Tuesday,
reflecting investors' current tendency to be risk-on one day and
risk-off the next.
Surveys suggest that investors are willing to take riskier
bets at the moment but are being constrained by concerns that
growth in the global economy is vulnerable.
"The overriding theme at the moment is that the data we're
seeing simply isn't conducive to building much confidence in the
market," said Cameron Peacock, analyst at IG Markets.
World stocks as measured by MSCI <.MIWD00000PUS> were up a
quarter of a percent for a 4.2 percent year-to-date gain. Much
of the drive came from emerging markets <.MSCIEF>, which gained
two thirds of a percent.
Emerging markets have returned to favour in the past few
weeks after a hiatus.
Japan's Nikkei <> rose 0.9 percent on the day in thin
volume. Analysts suggested the full impact of the country's
disasters, as outlined in the government's new assessment, was
still not clear.
A Bank of America-Merrill Lynch fund manager poll on Tuesday
showed investors rapidly cutting their exposure to Japanese
equities, although some big firms have been buying.
In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> rose a quarter of a
percent, rebounding from its biggest one-day fall in a month on
Tuesday.
YEN WEAKER
The yen slipped broadly while the euro edged back towards a
15-month high against the dollar.
The prospect of further interest rate rises by the European
Central Bank while monetary policy stays loose in the U.S. and
Japan continued to buoy the single currency, leaving it just shy
of a 15-month high of $1.4520.
The dollar <JPY=> was up 0.5 percent at 84.01 yen <JPY=>
after sliding more than 1.2 percent on Tuesday for its biggest
one-day percentage drop in four months.
"If there is no pullback in oil and other commodity prices
then I think going forward the yen will be very vulnerable,"
said Niels Christensen, currency strategist at Nordea in
Copenhagen.
On European bond markets, Bund futures handed back some of
the gains from a rally in the previous session as investor
appetite for risk rose and debt markets eyed a German auction of
ultra-long paper.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer and Atul Prakash;
Editing by John Stonestreet)
