Stock markets surged higher on Thursday, with some pushing into record territory, as traders brushed off the storming of the Capitol building in Washington.

After gains across much of Asia, Europe followed suit, and on Wall Street the three main indices struck new highs.

Frankfurt climbed past 14,000 points for the first time, but fell back below that level even if it set a new closing level record.

The dollar rose across the board, while bitcoin continued its record run and was flirting with $40,000, having passed $30,000 only on Saturday.

Oil prices pushed higher, building on recent strong gains.

"Traders are unfazed by the chaos that we experienced on Capitol Hill yesterday," noted Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

Congress formally certified Joe Biden as the next US president on Thursday, dealing a hammer blow to Donald Trump whose supporters stormed the Capitol hours earlier, triggering unprecedented scenes of mayhem in the seat of US democracy.

Trump later promised an "orderly transition".

The developments, along with the announcement that Democrats won the two Senate seat runoffs in Georgia that give the party control of the chamber, will help Biden push ahead with his legislative agenda that includes another huge stimulus package.

Analysts believe that while the new president could undo a lot of Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, he is unlikely to look at those until he has dealt with the virus and got the economy back up and running.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick J. O'Hare said the slim majority Democrats will enjoy in the Senate "suggests it will be hard to increase taxes in a challenging macroenvironment but more likely to pass more stimulus".

Craig Erlam at currency trading platform Oanda also noted that investor concerns about Democratic control of Congress have quickly dissipated.

"As ever, the idea of something has proven to be far scarier than the outcome itself and investors, rather than hiding in fear of taxes, are revelling in the prospect of more stimulus," he said in a note to clients.

The violence in the US took attention away from soaring coronavirus cases around the world that are forcing governments to impose fresh lockdowns.

Traders are optimistic that the rollout of vaccines, though slower than hoped, will eventually allow life to get back to normal.

Hong Kong was in the red Thursday after six days of gains, with market heavyweights Alibaba and Tencent diving following a report that the Trump administration is considering barring investment in their New York shares.

Elsewhere, electric carmaker Tesla closed trading on Wednesday with a market value topping $700 billion for the first time.

The latest surge means the company is worth more than General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen combined.

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 6,856.96 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 13,968.24 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 5,669.85 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.3 percent at 3,622.42

New York - Dow: UP 0.9 percent at 31,119.30

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.6 percent at 27,490.13 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.5 percent at 27,548.52 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,576.20 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.2271 from $1.2325 at 2200 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 103.83 yen from 102.99 yen

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3556 from $1.3607

Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.53 pence from 90.55 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $50.97 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.6 percent at $54.64 per barrel

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