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Closing stock market indices

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

FRANKFURT - The German DAX index closed up but off the day's highs after strong U.S. retail sales figures but muted inflation, pointing to an imminent small U.S. rate hike.

The DAX index closed up 0.62 peercent or 43.17 points at 6,955.98.

PARIS - A media alliance between consortium Lagardere and broadcaster Canal Plus fired up the Paris Bourse, allowing investors to forget interest rate worries for a while.

The CAC-40 blue-chip index closed up 0.91 percent or 50.74 at 5,633.24.

ZURICH - A general lack of investor demand for blue chips, and dwindling gains for pharma giant Roche led the Swiss shares to end mostly flat.

The blue-chip Swiss Market Index (SMI) ended down 0.04 percent or 3.3 points at 7,436.9.

MILAN - Milan stocks closed higher after a day in which financial stocks returned to the limelight as the terms of EU conditional approval for Generali's INA takeover boosted interest in the insurance sector.

The Mibtel all-share index ended up 0.76 percent or 208 points at 27,711.

AMSTERDAM - Dutch shares shed gains made earlier in the session following a slow start on Wall Street, although telecom, technology and media shares held on to their impression session gains.

The AEX blue chip index ended up 0.6 percent or 3.81 points at 642.21 points.

SYDNEY - The Australian share market closed modestly lower as investors continued to take profits in some resources issues, while others shifted away from banks because of interest rate fears.

The benchmark All Ordinaries Index closed down 8.8 points or about 0.28 percent at 3,095.8.

JOHANNESBURG - The South African bourse edged just above break-even in the closing minutes of trade, boosted by the central bank's endorsement of another interest rate cut and benign U.S. inflationary pressures.

The All-Share Index ended up 6.8 points or 0.08 percent at 8,953.1, the Industrial Index bounced 95.4 points or 0.90 percent to 9,742.7, while the Gold index drooped 16.1 points or 1.44 percent to 1,103.6.-Reuters