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Closing stock market indices

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

FRANKFURT - Germany's DAX index closed almost one percent lower after strong U.S. labour cost and GDP data fuelled fears that a widely anticipated U.S. rate hike next week could be sharper than previously thought. The DAX-30 index closed at 7066.6 points, down 59.53 or 0.84 percent a gain of 73.85 from last week.

PARIS - Paris Bourse ends with good gains as a slew of news in the telecommunications and media sectors lifts the CAC-40 above the 5,700-point mark. The CAC-40 index closed at 5731.05 points, up 42.7 or 0.75 percent, up 49.73 on the week.

ZURICH - Swiss shares closed more than one percent weaker. Early gains were wiped away when strong U.S. economic figures gave rise to interest rate fears and led to losses in the Dow Jones Industrials and Nasdaq. The Swiss market index closed at 7029.6 points, down 83.8 or 1.18 percent a fall of 206.4 from a week ago.

MILAN - Milan stock indices ended lower, weighed down by a weak start on Wall Street but with gains in utilities and selected telecoms stocks keeping losses limited. The All Share Mibtel index closed at 28765 points, down 15 or 0.05 percent up 185 points from last week.

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch share market was again a laggard in Europe, as retail selling pushed the AEX index down slightly by the close. The AEX index closed at 632.46 points, down 2.41 or 0.38 percent. This was down 9.01 since last Friday.

SYDNEY - The Australian share market closed modestly higher on the back of an inflation-inspired rally among interest-rate sensitive stocks such as banks. The benchmark All Ordinaries Index closed up 8.7 points or about 0.28 percent at 3,092.1, but recorded a fall of 11.3 on the week.

JOHANNESBURG - A movement of foreign funds out of the South African stock market and jitters over a possible bigger-than-expected U.S. interest rate hike dragged the Johannesburg bourse down. The All-Share closed down 119.1 points or 1.38 percent at 8,537.6, a fall of 505.5 on the week. The industrial index came off 1.62 percent to 9,439.3, a drop of 527.4 since last Friday. The gold index drifted down 7.3 points to 1,082.7, a loss of 70.6 over the week.-Reuters