Global stock markets rallied on Thursday as chipmaker Nvidia’s bumper overnight results boosted technology groups and pushed indices in Japan and Europe to all-time highs.

Nvidia surged more than 14 per cent in pre-market trading after it reported a 265 per cent rise in revenues late on Wednesday, blowing past analysts’ expectations, and projected even stronger sales growth. Contracts tracking the S&P 500 index rose 1.3 per cent, while those tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.1 per cent.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 index hit a record high, and was 0.8 per cent higher in mid-morning trading on Thursday, above its previous peak reached in January 2022. Japan’s main stock market index, the Nikkei 225, also climbed past its all-time high earlier on Thursday after a 34-year wait.