FRANKFURT, Germany — European stocks halted three days of losses today, rising slightly after a concerted effort by central banks to pump billions more U.S. dollars into troubled money markets and limit the global financial crisis. Earlier, Asian markets fell.

Britain's FTSE-100 was up 1.6 percent after Lloyds TSB 12.2 billion-pound ($21.8 billion) deal to acquire struggling HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, eased some concern among traders there.

"The acquisition will strengthen the presence of Lloyds on the UK market," said Ivanka Stefanova, a credit analyst with UniCredit in Munich.

In Frankfurt, the German DAX was up nearly 1 percent in early afternoon trading, lifted in part by shares of Deutsche Boerse AG, which rose nearly 11 percent, as well as automaker Volkswagen AG, whom investors believe will likely be completely taken over by Porsche SE in the coming weeks. That pushed shares of Europe's biggest automaker up more than 10.1 percent in trading.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank by assets, saw its shares rise more than 4 percent to euro52.44.

Analysts said the gains in European markets were largely the result of the announcement by the European Central Bank, Federal Reserve and central banks in Switzerland, Japan, Britain and Canada, to provide as much as $180 billion in extra dollars to cash-starved banks.

In a statement, the Fed said it had authorized the expansion of swap lines, or reciprocal currency arrangements, with the other central banks, including amounts up to $110 billion by the ECB and up to $27 million by the Swiss National Bank.

In Paris, the CAC 40 was up nearly 1.1 percent, led in part by bank Dexia, shares of which were up almost 10 percent, as well as strong ganis by banks Credit Agricle and BNP Paribas, both of which surged 5.9 percent and 5.8 percent higher.

Gains were also seen on exchanges in Madrid, where the SMSI was up 1.4 percent and in Stockholm, where stocks rose nearly 1 percent.

Elsewhere, Russia's main stock exchanges remained mostly closed today, a day after regulators suspended trading amid a dizzying plummet in share prices. The MICEX resumed limited trading; the RTS was set to reopen Friday.

ITAR-Tass and Interfax quoted Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin also as saying that Russia's three largest banks will be getting an extra 60 billion rubles ($2.36 billion) to help bolster the financial markets.

Across Asia, stocks fell but managed to erase most of the sharp losses that arose after Lehman Brothers Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection and insurer American International Group was bailed out by the U.S. government.