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Closing stock market indices

LONDON: Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Tuesday.

FRANKFURT - Germany's DAX closed slightly lower after a late U.S.-led recovery helped pare losses from earlier profit-taking as stocks broadly consolidated following sharp gains in the past two sessions.

The benchmark DAX index of 30 German blue chip companies finished 0.49 percent or 34.27 points lower at 6,891.25.

PARIS - French blue-chips ended in the red as an early media-fed rally spluttered out in the face of Wall Street's weakness and a sharp sell-off of heavyweight France Telecom.

The benchmark CAC-40 closed down 0.57 percent or 32.22 points at 5,613.90.

ZURICH - The Swiss blue-chip index closed lower, slipping in line with other European indices after failing to join a rally by media and Internet stocks after news of the America Online/Time Warner merger.

The SMI closed down 0.44 percent or 32.7 points at 7,420.1.

MILAN - Milan stock indices closed marginally higher after Wall Street turned around a negative start to trade higher by the close in Milan where broadcaster Mediaset was among top gainers for the second day in a row.

The all-share Mibtel index ended up 0.48 percent or 131 points at 27,198.

AMSTERDAM - Shares on the Dutch bourse closed mostly weaker as telecom stocks retreated and software maker Baan Company wiped out Monday's short-lived gains to fall 15 percent in the session.

The AEX index of blue chip stocks closed down 0.95 percent or 6.2 points at 648.94 points.

SYDNEY - A stunning rally in media group News Corp almost single handedly propelled the Australian stock market to a record close.

The benchmark All Ordinaries Index closed up 61.5 points or almost two percent at 3,164.6.

JOHANNESBURG - A new year rally on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange showed it still had mileage left as the bourse's key index closed above the 9,000 mark for the first time.

The All Share index ended up 39.4 points or 0.44 percent at 9,003.0, the Industrial index finished up 81.8 points or 0.85 percent at 9,681.1, while the Gold index closed down 30 points or 2.64 percent at 1108.5.-Reuters