An index of leading U.S. economic indicators rose in October, driven by growing optimism among consumers and gains in stock prices, a report released Monday said.

The Conference Board said in a report that its composite index of leading economic indicators for October rose by 0.2 percent to 138.3, after a revised 0.4 percent advance in September. October's rise matched forecasters' expectation, noted the report.

"Housing permits continued to make the largest negative contribution to the leading index in this period, followed by vendor performance, offsetting large positive contributions from real money supply and consumer expectations. Strengths and weaknesses have been roughly balanced among the leading indicators in recent months' read the report.

The group reported on the coincident index, saying indicators were up 0.1 percent to a reading of 123.7, after September's revised gain of 0.2 percent. The lagging index rose 0.2 percent to 124.1 in September and remained unchanged in August.

The Conference Board is a non-profit research business organization that conducts research using data from the U.S. Department of Commerce in order to produce economic statistics.